Capito, Republican colleagues seek permanent E-Verify program to check immigration status

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) recently reintroduced a GOP-led bill to permanently implement an improved electronic immigrant verification system that aims to foster workplace accountability and prioritize American workers.

“Lowering unemployment and making good-paying jobs accessible is vital to the future success of our state,” Sen. Capito said last week. “I’m happy to support this effort to improve the hiring process in our country.”

The Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act, S. 71, sponsored on Jan. 27 by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and cosponsored by 10 lawmakers, including Sen. Capito and U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), would permanently authorize and expand the E-Verify program, an internet-based system that assists employers in determining whether current or prospective employees are authorized to work in the United States.

“E-Verify helps streamline the process between our businesses and immigration laws, creating ease for both our employers and workers,” said Sen. Capito.

Currently, employers voluntarily submit information from an employee’s Form I-9 to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the E-Verify system, which works in partnership with the Social Security Administration to determine worker eligibility. E-Verify is free to use and more than 750,000 businesses now use the program, according to Sen. Capito’s office.

The bill would make the program mandatory for all employers within one year of date of enactment; requires federal contractors and agencies to use the program immediately; and would direct “critical employers,” as identified by DHS, to use the system within 30 days of designation, according to the text of the bill.

Additionally, S. 71 would increase penalties for employers who illegally hire undocumented workers and reduce the liability that employers face if they participate in E-Verify when it involves the wrongful termination of an individual.

Among several other provisions, the bill also would allow employers to use E-Verify before a person is hired if consent is provided by the prospective employee and amends the criminal code to clarify that defendants who possess or otherwise use identity information that is not their own without lawful authority and in the commission of another felony is still punishable for aggravated identity fraud, regardless of the defendant’s “knowledge” of the victim, according to the bill’s text. 

The original bicameral bills, H.R. 1399/S. 556, which were introduced by Republicans in February 2019, never advanced out of committees in either house of Congress.