-Source-The Mercury News-
When federal agents raided dozens of 7-Eleven stores across the country earlier this month and arrested 21 workers suspected of being undocumented immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan declared that the highly publicized raids were meant to send a message to employers: “If you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable.”
But after all the smoke from the day’s fiery rhetoric cleared, one huge question remained: How did these undocumented immigrants get hired in the first place?
At a time when the national debate over immigration is at its tipping point, questions have begun to resurface about the effectiveness of E-Verify, a 21-year-old electronic program designed to filter out undocumented immigrants who apply for jobs. Some conservative Republicans in the House indicated on Tuesday that they intend to make E-Verify a key issue as Congress in the next few weeks vigorously discusses the future of immigration, including the “Dreamers,” the 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. when they were children.
Many Americans wonder how millions of undocumented immigrants so easily slip through the job-authorization system even though it’s been three decades since employers have been asked to verify the immigration status of job applicants.
After all, credit card companies nearly seamlessly verify tens of millions of 16-digit numbers every day with a tiny little machine that easily fits on the counter of nearly every store in America. What could be so hard about verifying that every job applicant has a valid Social Security number or “alien registration number” that indicates that the jobseeker is a legal U.S. resident even if he or she is not yet a citizen.
Some immigration experts contend that E-Verify sounds like a no-nonsense solution but that it’s essentially a political fig leaf, with so many significant flaws and loopholes that it allows employers to continue to knowingly hire undocumented workers with few repercussions. Read more
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