Dobbs Argues E-Verify Should Be Mandatory Because "It Works"

Dobbs: Obama Refuses To Make E-Verify Mandatory Because "It Works." Hosting Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) to talk immigration on his Fox Business show, Dobbs claimed that the E-Verify program is 99 percent effective. He then added: "[T]hat's precisely why your friends and colleagues in Congress and over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the president himself, and the previous president, in all fairness -- refused to make E-Verify mandatory for the very simple reason it works." From the segment:

    DOBBS: I think that most Democrats would agree with most Republicans that you -- if you're going to control illegal immigration -- that is, end it -- you have to stop the illegal employer from employing illegally illegal immigrants. It's pretty straightforward, isn't it?

    SMITH: Exactly. We have a wonderful program called E-Verify, and employers can check their employees. In fact, over 200,000 have signed up for this program. There are 1,300 more signing up every week, and we need to encourage employers, businesses to use this E-Verify program, and keep those jobs for American workers and legal immigrants as well.

    DOBBS: Mr. Chairman, there are going to be a lot of people listening to you and saying, "What do you mean, we need to encourage? Isn't it the law?" And of course --

    SMITH: It is not.

    DOBBS: -- it's not the law.

    SMITH: It is not mandatory, this E-Verify program. I think we need to expand it. We need to make it mandatory for a large number of individuals. But it works. It's 99 percent effective.

    DOBBS: Ninety-nine percent effective, and that's precisely why your friends and colleagues in Congress and over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the president himself, and the previous president, in all fairness -- refused to make E-Verify mandatory for the very simple reason it works.

    SMITH: It does work and it protects those jobs for American workers and legal immigrants. [Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, 5/11/11]

E-Verify Does Not Adequately Screen Unauthorized Workers

DHS Study Found That E-Verify Wrongly Cleared 54 Percent Of Unauthorized Workers. In a January 2010 report commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, research firm Westat analyzed data from September 2007 to June 2008 and found that "primarily due to identity fraud, approximately half (54 percent with a plausible range of 37 to 64 percent) of unauthorized workers run through E-Verify receive an inaccurate finding of being work authorized." From the study:

    Westat estimates that overall, E-Verify queries result in an accurate response 96 percent of the time and an inaccurate response 4.1 percent of the time. But only 6.2 percent of all E-Verify queries relate to unauthorized workers. Westat estimates that, primarily due to identity fraud, approximately half (54 percent with a plausible range of 37 to 64 percent) of unauthorized workers run through E-Verify receive an inaccurate finding of being work authorized. As a result, the 54 percent statistic relates only to the 6.2 percent figure ... means that of all E-Verify queries, only approximately 3.3 percent are for unauthorized workers that were incorrectly found work authorized. [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 1/28/10, emphasis added]

E-Verify Has Limited System In Place To Correct Errors, Leaving Workers With Significant Costs For Corrections

DHS Study: "20 To 40 Percent" Of Workers Who Are Flagged As Ineligible "Are Not Informed" Of The Error. According to Westat, "Sixty to 80 percent of authorized workers are informed by their employer of a TNC. (In other words, 20 to 40 percent are not informed of the TNC and receive FNCs.)" Westat further reported:

    However, there is good reason to believe that employers underreport noncompliance with E-Verify notification procedures. Among the 82 employers with two or more workers receiving TNCs, 37 had one or more employees who reported that they did not receive an explanation. This may be an overestimate of noncompliance because workers may not recall having the notice explained.

    Among the 108 onsite study employers for which the evaluation team reviewed employment verification files of workers receiving TNCs, over half were missing copies of TNC notices for a majority of the workers for whom cases had been submitted to E-Verify. In some of these cases, it is likely that the employer provided the worker with the notice but did not correctly file it, as specified in E-Verify procedures.