The anti-enforcement drumbeat continues from the pro-illegals press and blogs like the “Dream Act Texas” site linked below.  The Tucson Citizen recently reported that “…about 19,000 E-Verify queries* nationwide this year erroneously resulted in a “tentative nonconfirmation” of legal eligibility for employment.”

What the anti-enforcement folks don’t tell you is that no employee is denied a job because of a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” response from E-Verify! And a less-than-favorable response doesn’t prevent someone from receiving a job because E-Verify cannot be used to pre-screen applicants.

What they also don’t tell you is that an erroneous response can happen for many reasons including typographical errors or the employer’s inability to read clearly the documents presented by the employee. In other words, the E-Verify system isn’t wrong; the employer is. And I would wager that a significant percentage of the 19,000 “erroneous” queries were probably quickly and correctly resubmitted by the employer after the required review of the initial submission.

How It Works

Let me reiterate… E-Verify does not prevent anyone from receiving a job simply because I-9 data cannot be submitted to the system until after the applicant is hired. Further, an employee cannot lose the job solely because a Tentative NonConfirmation response is received. Federal law prohibits an employer from terminating an employee because of a Tentative NonConfirmation.

The employee is given the opportunity to challenge the initial unfavorable response. If the employee chooses to challenge, he/she is then provided instructions for correcting their employment eligibility status and has up to eight days to do so. Depending on the type of nonconfirmation, the employee may need to appear at the local Social Security office so that records can be manually searched and reviewed, or simply make a phone call.

The overwhelming majority of Tentative NonConfirmations are cleared up within just a few days, while the employee is still working. Most result from a failure of the employee; for example, a female who fails to update her SSA record after marriage.

If an employee who has been submitted to E-Verify loses his/her job, it will only be because a detailed, manual examination of their SSA record failed to establish employment eligibility, or the employee failed to complete the challenge process.

(* Do I need to also point out that 19,000 erroneous responses out of four million queries is less than one-half of one percent of the total queries in 2008, to date?)

DREAM ACT – TEXAS: Did someone say that E-Verify is accurate?