Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

The current system used to verify an employee's citizenship status is severely flawed and must be changed or replaced, said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) during a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security. Keeping illegal immigrants from finding work in the U.S. would drastically decrease their presence in the U.S., he said.

E-Verify, the system now in place, relies on a name, date of birth, and social security number in order to determine whether an employee is a legal citizen. An employer checks the information provided by an employee against a government database. As long as an illegal alien can retrieve a legal citizen’s information, either by stealing it or receiving it from a legal friend, he or she can game the system.

In addition, ten percent of all workers that E-Verify claims are illegal aliens are actually legal citizens, said Michael Aytes, Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Schumer called for a system that would be flawless. “The only way the American people will have faith that our comprehensive immigration reform bill will stop illegal workers from obtaining jobs is if we implement an employment verification system that is tough, fair, easy to use, and effective and which relies upon a non-forgeable biometric identifier,” he said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pointed out that some unemployment issues could be solved by replacing employed illegal aliens with actual U.S. citizens. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) was more concerned with the fact that oftentimes illegal aliens are grossly mistreated by corrupt employers.

Gutierrez said, “incorporating an effective employment verification system is our only hope for truly ending illegal immigration. We can do this, and we must do it this year. In the the end, this is not a question of whether or not we can craft an effective system; rather, it is a question of political will.”