What Is E-Verify? Republicans Push To Expand Controversial Program Limiting Undocumented Workers

Topline

As the controversial Trump-era border policy Title 42 comes to a close this week, a group of Republicans are pushing to require employers to use an online verification system known as E-Verify, another controversial program aimed at curbing undocumented labor—though the move faces pushback from both parties.

House Republicans sponsored a bill to boost a slew of Trump-era immigration policies, as well as an … [+] expansion of an online workplace verification program known as “E-Verify.”

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Key Facts

E-Verify is a website operated by the Department of Homeland Security that allows employers to confirm the immigration status of their employees using information from federal I-9 forms, ensuring that an employee is allowed to work under immigration rules.

The system was introduced as a voluntary pilot program in six states in 1996 through the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, and it was expanded in 2007 to require all federal government agencies to sign up and again in 2009 for companies that receive federal contracts.

E-Verify is already required for either public or private employers in 22 states, including 14 with Republican governors—though it’s been widely criticized by immigration groups and by some congressional Republicans, who argue it could weaken the agricultural industry, which relies heavily on migrant labor.

On Tuesday, former South Carolina governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for a mandatory nationwide E-Verify program, joining a group of major Republicans to push for it to be expanded, fearing undocumented migrants could replace U.S.-born workers.

Those calls, including a bill sponsored by several GOP senators in January to compel all employers to use the E-Verify program, come just days before Title 42 is set to expire, ending a Covid-era policy used primarily to expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

State governments have also turned to the verification program in an attempt to curb undocumented residents from competing for jobs, with Florida’s state House and Senate passing SB 1718 requiring businesses with more than 25 employees to use the program, and Texas lawmakers introducing HB 602, a bill currently in committee, which would expand the state’s existing verification program by requiring municipalities to participate in E-Verify and terminate employees who don’t comply.

Republican lawmakers last month also proposed a bill called the Secure the Border Act, which aims to codify a group of Trump-era policies, including by resuming construction on a southern border wall and making the E-Verify program mandatory—though the bill faces long-shot odds in the Democratic-controlled House, and President Joe Biden vowed to veto it.

Chief Critic

In a House Judiciary Committee meeting last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) argued against the program, saying, “We don’t need another federal database.” Massie tweeted earlier this week: “Republicans are about to make a huge mistake” by “turning EMPLOYERS into enforcers.” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) also raised concerns over the effect an E-Verify mandate could have on agriculture—a major concern among farmers, who argue that a decline in migrant workers could worsen ongoing workplace shortages. John Walt Boatright, the director of government affairs with the American Farm Bureau Federation, called those shortages “one of the greatest limiting factors for growth in U.S. agriculture,” arguing Congress first needs to address agricultural staff shortages and create a measure that “modernizes our guest worker program” before moving on to an E-Verify mandate. The program has also raised eyebrows for being easy to evade since it “checks the identification papers, not the worker,” the libertarian Cato Institute says. A 2009 Westat audit found that roughly 54% of undocumented workers skirt the regulation by simply submitting another person’s documentation, with some borrowing or stealing IDs.

News Peg

The House Rules Committee is expected to amend the House bill mandating the use of E-Verify by requiring the DHS to study the impact the mandate could have on the agricultural industry, Politico reported Tuesday, citing sources close to Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who have also expressed concerns over the mandate.

Crucial Quote

Haley defended the program in a February interview with Breitbart News, saying, “The second you stop being a country of laws you give up everything this country was founded on,” and adding: “The fabric of America is legal immigration but those processes have to be in place.”

Big Number

1 million. That’s the number of businesses in the U.S. that participate in the E-Verify program, as of 2021, according to DHS data.

Key Background

The Biden Administration has faced bipartisan pushback for its back-and-forth stance on immigration, amid a surge of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans have lambasted the administration for what GOP lawmakers view as lax border policies, while Democrats have argued the administration’s decision this week to send 1,500 troops to the border creates a humanitarian problem. The Trump and Biden administrations used Title 42 to expel scores of migrants shortly after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border, but after three years, the program is set to end this week. Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump argued the U.S. would become a “third-world nation” when Title 42 expires, a decision expected to further the wave of asylum seekers to the border.

Tangent

Nearly two dozen states have mandated the E-Verify program to varying degrees. Nine states require it for all employers (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah), and 11 require it for most public employees (Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia).

What Is E-Verify? Republicans Push To Expand Controversial Program Limiting Undocumented Workers—Despite Some GOP Pushback