With the U.S. immigration move of allowing up to 5 million of 11 million illegal immigrants to continue their tenure in the country, a lot of questions are up in the air. And while US president Barack Obama continues to deal with legal issues on the controversy, more issues are bound to arise.
And one issue that comes to mind is the eventual hiring of legalized unauthorized workers which puts employers in the limelight. How can they properly hire people who have been covered by the so-called blanket law which may eventually take away jobs from people who are actual citizens of the U.S.?
The New York Times offers an interesting take – E-Verify. For people who are unaware of what E-Verify is, this is a process that allows employers to make the proper verification of workers and the information they submit.
E-Verify is something that began in 1997 but has remained optional for a majority of the private-sector companies. The intent of the program is to prevent the use of fraudulent documents and requirements for individuals who seek to obtain jobs.
The optional clause could change though since the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill last March 3 which would require every newly hired individual to be electronically verified.
Unfortunately while the intent of the bill may be good, it doesn't seem to be a convincing resort. In fact, it is seen as something that may even escalate the growing problem of identity theft since the margin of error is still in play.
Will employers truly embrace the program and cooperate to ensure that any further unauthorized applicants will be weeded out?
Perhaps not 100% but in order to see if E-verify is indeed an answer, cooperation from employers and initial implementation must be done.
