E-verify may soon be required for all businesses

Earlier this month, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced a bill – “The Legal Workforce Act” (H.R. 3711) – which would require all U.S. employers to use E-Verify to check the work eligibility of new hires.

The bill phases in mandatory E-Verify participation for new hires in six month increments beginning on the date of enactment, depending on the size of the business. It also requires that employees performing “agricultural labor or services” are subject to an E-Verify check within 30 months of the date of enactment.

You can read a full summary of the bill’s key components here.

E-Verify, operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), checks the social security numbers of newly hired employees against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to help ensure that they are genuinely eligible to work in the U.S.

The program quickly confirms 99.8% of work-eligible employees and takes less than two minutes to use. Over 740,000 American employers currently use E-Verify and 83% of America’s employers support a mandatory electronic verification system.

In a release on his website, Smith said:

“The Legal Workforce Act puts legal workers first and enjoys broad support from the American people. It is free, quick, easy-to-use and effective. Nearly 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. Meanwhile, seven million people are working in the United States illegally. By expanding the E-Verify system to all U.S. employers, this bill will ensure that jobs only go to legal workers.”

Smith also introduced the 1996 bill that created the pilot for the E-Verify system.