Dive Brief:
- The Trump administration is considering steps to make E-Verify mandatory, according to multiple news sources.
- Mandating E-Verify may come as a part of the White House's plan to overhaul the immigration system, McClatchy reported. The administration declined to address the E-Verify proposal, but a senior official told McClatchy that "the priority was on stopping illegal entry into the country and protecting Americans."
- Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, presented a plan for increasing skill-focused immigration and cutting back family-based immigration to Senate Republicans last week, Politico reported. The plan would maintain the same number of legal immigrants each year, the outlet said.
Dive Insight:
The Obama administration stopped short of requiring that employers use E-Verify to authorize workers and chose instead to encourage them to do so. But employers may no longer have a choice if the current White House decides to include E-Verify in forthcoming immigration legislation. Until then, employers must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using E-Verify.
Attorney Leigh Ganchan, a shareholder with the Houston office of Ogletree Deakins, previously told HR Dive that employers should be aware that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a monitoring and compliance division for E-Verify. "[DHS] has officers who watch the data that's entered behind the scenes. If they see a pattern of what they consider to be errors, they contact the employer," she said. These officers generally try to educate the employer about what the division discovered. Although no fees are levied on employers that make errors in E-Verfy filings, that may change if the process is mandated, Ganchan noted.
