The most recent E-Verify problems are the focus of a lengthy federal audit published just a few days ago by the DHS Inspector General. In its report, the watchdog blasts USCIS, identifying “deficiencies” that illustrate the program needs “additional capabilities” to “more effectively confirm that individuals are eligible for employment in the United States.” The document identifies weaknesses in E-Verify’s process for confirming identity during employment verification and discloses that the system’s photo-matching mechanism is not fully automated, but rather, relies on employers to confirm individuals’ identities by manually reviewing photos. “We also determined that in fiscal year 2019, E-Verify returned an ‘Employment Authorized’ result for about 280,000 non-U.S. citizens without using the photo-matching process to confirm their identities,” the report says. “Additionally, although the majority of individuals submit a driver’s license to prove identity, E-Verify’s process does not use photos to ensure that individuals match the license submitted.”
It gets better. Investigators reveal they “found errors in E-Verify’s license verification process that resulted in E-Verify deeming about 613,000 individuals ‘Employment Authorized’ without meeting USCIS’ own identification system use requirement.” The probe further determined that E-Verify returned an “Employment Authorized” result for almost 3,000 non-U.S. citizens who did not meet USCIS’ verification requirements. Those are considered illegal immigrants. E-Verify also authorized 4,000 non-U.S. citizens to work based on an employer-sponsored visa without verifying that the individual was hired by the employer that sponsored them. “Lastly, USCIS has not completed full testing of E-Verify’s capabilities to determine whether the system can handle the projected increase in users,” the report states, attributing the problems to USCIS’s failure to develop or evaluate internal controls necessary to detect, track and investigate system errors. “Until USCIS addresses E-Verify’s deficiencies, it cannot ensure the system provides accurate employment eligibility results,” the watchdog writes.
