Chairman Goodlatte Applauds Launch of “My E-Verify”
October 6, 2014
Washington, D.C. — The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today launched “My E-Verify,” which helps prevent identity theft by providing a mechanism for individuals to lock their Social Security numbers so that it cannot be used by another person to get a job. “My E-Verify” is now available in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. and will soon be rolled out to the rest of the country.
In June 2013, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 1772), authored by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). This bipartisan bill discourages illegal immigration by requiring all U.S. employers to check the work eligibility of newly hired employees though the E-Verify system. Additionally, the bill contains a provision requiring USCIS to create a mechanism to allow people to lock their own Social Security numbers for employment purposes.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) applauded the rollout of “My E-Verify” in the statement below.
Chairman Goodlatte: “With today’s launch of ‘My E-Verify,’ Americans now have an easy way to prevent people from using their Social Security numbers to work unlawfully in the United States. This is an important improvement that I have long supported to an already popular and successful program. This update is within USCIS’ authority to make, and I am pleased that USCIS has implemented one of the many good ideas put forth in legislation approved by the House Judiciary Committee. We should continue to build upon the successes of E-Verify and require all U.S. employers to use it to check the work eligibility of their newly hired employees. This would go a long way toward protecting jobs for Americans and legal immigrants and deterring people from coming to the United States illegally.”
Created in 1996, E-Verify is a web-based program that checks the Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records in order to eliminate fraudulent numbers and help ensure that new hires are genuinely eligible to work in the U.S. The program quickly confirms 99.7% of work-eligible employees and takes less than two minutes to use. Today, over 550,000 American employers voluntarily use E-Verify. Outside evaluations have found that the vast majority of employers using E-Verify believe it to be an effective and reliable tool for checking the legal status of their employees.
In June 2013, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 1772), authored by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). This bipartisan bill discourages illegal immigration by requiring all U.S. employers to check the work eligibility of newly hired employees though the E-Verify system. Additionally, the bill contains a provision requiring USCIS to create a mechanism to allow people to lock their own Social Security numbers for employment purposes.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) applauded the rollout of “My E-Verify” in the statement below.
Chairman Goodlatte: “With today’s launch of ‘My E-Verify,’ Americans now have an easy way to prevent people from using their Social Security numbers to work unlawfully in the United States. This is an important improvement that I have long supported to an already popular and successful program. This update is within USCIS’ authority to make, and I am pleased that USCIS has implemented one of the many good ideas put forth in legislation approved by the House Judiciary Committee. We should continue to build upon the successes of E-Verify and require all U.S. employers to use it to check the work eligibility of their newly hired employees. This would go a long way toward protecting jobs for Americans and legal immigrants and deterring people from coming to the United States illegally.”
Created in 1996, E-Verify is a web-based program that checks the Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records in order to eliminate fraudulent numbers and help ensure that new hires are genuinely eligible to work in the U.S. The program quickly confirms 99.7% of work-eligible employees and takes less than two minutes to use. Today, over 550,000 American employers voluntarily use E-Verify. Outside evaluations have found that the vast majority of employers using E-Verify believe it to be an effective and reliable tool for checking the legal status of their employees.