Lawmaker to introduce bill to require biometric verification of workers

A senator plans to introduce a bill before the Labor Day holiday that would require American workers to have their employment eligibility verified using biometric technology.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Tuesday the bill would call for the E-Verify system, which businesses are encouraged to use to validate job applicants' Social Security numbers, to include a biometric identifier such as a fingerprint.

During his opening statement as chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, Schumer criticized the E-Verify system operated by the Homeland Security Department as "half-hearted," and said it is easily fooled by workers using someone else's personal information.

DHS wants to use E-Verify to check a job applicant's Social Security number against a government database to confirm that they are eligible to work in the United States. Agencies currently are required to use the system to check the eligibility of new hires, and the Obama administration recently said federal contractors will have to do the same starting Sept. 8. The Senate also recently approved an expansion of the program that would encourage employers to check the status of existing workers, not only new hires.

But Schumer said job applicants could easily fool E-Verify. "It's not difficult to scam [E-Verify] by providing the personal information of a legal worker," he said. "The only way is to implement an employment verification system that is tough, fair, easy to use and effective, which relies on biometric identifiers."

Schumer's bill would provide the estimated 12 million illegal workers in the United States an opportunity to obtain legal working status in the United States. But he said stopping businesses from hiring illegal workers would be crucial to stemming the future flow of undocumented immigrants. Schumer laid out a series of criteria that an employment verification system would have to possess, including the ability to process specific biometric information such as a fingerprint or other identifier such as a photograph.

Businesses also must use the system to check citizens' and noncitizens' status to avoid charges of discrimination and this information cannot be used for law enforcement or other purposes. He proposed paying for the system by charging fees to immigrants seeking legal status and to future immigrants seeking to live in the United States.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., testifying as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, expressed his support for the biometric system. "As Congress examines biometrics as part of a new and better system, I want to encourage you to ignore the naysayers, those who claim this can't be done," he said. "Incorporating an effective employment verification system is our only hope for truly ending illegal immigration."

In written testimony given to the subcommittee, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized a biometric verification system. "From a practical point of view, a biometric system is the worst of both worlds," said Chris Calabrese, counsel to the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project. "It puts enormous burdens on those already obeying the law while leaving enough loopholes so that lawbreakers will slip through."

Calabrese wrote that the new system would be expensive to build and would create a "no-work list" of legal workers trapped by errors in the system.

The ACLU has opposed E-Verify because of what it deems to be unacceptably high error rates. The organization also has indicated a resistance to any form of automated employment verification system.

Michael Aytes, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services at DHS, which operates E-Verify, told the panel the existing system is growing exponentially and is "no longer a niche system." CIS has worked to reduce the error rate, which is overstated, he said.

"Today, 96.9 percent of queries result in an automatic confirmation; the worker is authorized to work," Aytes said. "Of the remainder, one in 10 is ultimately found to be work-authorized."