Houston Chronicle: E-Verify gaining a bigger role in hiring

EXCERPT:
There have been court challenges, critical government reports and predictions of dire consequences.

Unofficially the government's E-Verify system is on hold for a nationwide roll-out until the problems get sorted out. But the database program that combines records from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security already is creeping into our lives.

For more than a decade, E-Verify has been a voluntary program that has allowed employers to determine worker eligibility by matching the names to the Social Security numbers and birth dates applicants provide.

But for more and more workers, the system is no longer voluntary.

"It's a chipping away," said immigration lawyer Judy Lee of Quan, Burdette & Perez in Houston, referring to the growing list of places E-Verify is popping up.

President Bush has signed an executive order that will require all federal contractors to run names of their employees working on a government project — both new and existing — through the E-Verify system. The rules are open for public comment until Aug. 11.

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