Latest delay to E-Verify prompts doubts about program's future

The Homeland Security Department announced this week it would delay until September implementing a rule requiring federal contractors to verify that new hires are eligible to work in the United States, the fourth time the Obama administration has postponed the requirement.

DHS notified lawmakers on Wednesday that the rule, which would have required all federal contractors to use the E-Verify online database to check the legal status of their workers starting June 30, now will take effect on Sept. 8. The rule resulted from an executive order issued by President Bush last June.

A spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which manages E-Verify, said the delay will give the administration more time to examine the system and the requirement placed on contractors. Homeland Security officials did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. But DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Wednesday during a speech in Washington that she is a big supporter of the program and will ask Congress to set aside additional funds for it during the budget process.

Republican lawmakers questioned the latest delay.

"It is inexcusable that ... the administration has delayed the requirement for federal contractors to use E-Verify," said Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., in a statement issued Wednesday. "Time after time we have heard congressional testimony supporting the credibility and importance of E-Verify, which is why the secretary of Homeland Security has endorsed this important project. The administration needs to stop playing political games and rectify this situation immediately so that taxpayer money isn't funding illegitimate employment and hard-working citizens aren't pushed to the back of the employment line."

Business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and immigration rights advocates, however, have strongly opposed the program, citing its cost to small businesses and an error rate they deem unacceptably high.

Omar Jadwat, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project in New York, said his organization is confident that after further consideration, the administration will withdraw the contractor requirement.

"We think the administration will realize it was a bad idea to begin with," said Jadwat. "For one thing, there is nothing in the statute that allows the government to impose a rule like this by executive order, which is what they're trying to do. More fundamentally, there are deep and systemic flaws in the E-Verify system that cause real problems for workers, especially older workers and naturalized citizens -- the folks least likely to be able to navigate the bureaucracy to clear up errors."

Bill Wright, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency is constantly working to refine and improve the system's accuracy. He said since the start of the current fiscal year in October 2008, E-Verify has processed more than 5.2 million queries from 127,000 employers. Wright said he is "100 percent confident" the system can handle the additional burden of 186,000 federal contractors if the rule goes into effect.

Wright said 96.1 percent of all queries entered into the system result in immediate approval for employment. Of the remaining 3.9 percent, 0.4 percent successfully contest their eligibility status and 3.5 percent are not authorized for work.