New immigration tool verifies workers

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/250447.html

Posted on Wed, Sep. 26, 2007

BY EUNICE MOSCOSO
Cox News Service

WASHINGTON --
Businesses, facing a government crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants, now have one more tool to help them verify a worker's status.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services unveiled a system Tuesday that matches photographs from green cards and other immigrant work permits against a database of more than 14 million pictures.

If the photos match, the employer will know that the person is using his or her own card, not a stolen or doctored identification, federal officials said.

''We are very, very committed to the idea of workplace enforcement,'' said Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. ``If we have workplace enforcement, we can reduce pressure on our border. That allows the assets that we have on our border. . . to catch bad people.''

The photo system is part of a volunteer employment verification system known as E-Verify that compares employee information against millions of government records.

About 23,000 businesses across the country participate in the program and about 2,000 are signing up every month, Gonzalez said.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security is working on regulations that would require all new federal contractors to use the E-Verify system. A draft of the rules will likely be released early next year, said Gerri Ratliff, deputy associate director of the National Security and Records Verification Directorate at USCIS.

FULL story at link.