E-Verify is 99.5 percent accurate

E-Verify, a federal government program which allows employers to check the immigration status of new employees, has been improving and is now 99.5 percent accurate. The voluntary program is already screening more than ten percent of new hires nationally. As of September 13, E-Verify had processed 6.21 million queries.

The program is scheduled to expire on November 30, 2008 unless it is re-authorized by Congress. While the House of Representatives has already overwhelmingly passed a reauthorization bill, the Senate has not yet taken any action.

An evaluation by the Center for Immigration studies showed that:

• One-half of one percent of eligible employees screened had to take additional steps to obtain work authorization. The system is 99.5% accurate.

• More than 93 percent of employees are verified within five seconds; another 1.2 percent are verified within 24 hours.

• About 5 percent of new employees are not confirmed as work authorized, mirroring the same percentage of illegal aliens estimated to be in the labor force.

• As of September 13, 2008, 85,816 employers representing over 446,000 sites and over 6.21 million queries had been processed. About 1,000 new employers join per week.