Enforcement

Mandatory electronic employment verification systems would require all American workers, foreign- and native-born alike, to seek the government’s permission to work. This Immigration Fact Check covers what we know about the databases and what we can expect if these bills are passed, including information on database error rates, the impact on the SSA, and employers' misuse of the program.

Published On: Wed, Apr 02, 2008 | Download File

This fact check looks at the experiences of Arizona’s employers and employees with E-Verify, and early signals of its impact on the state’s economy.

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Published On: Mon, May 05, 2008 | Download File

While the U.S. government has poured billions upon billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically. Rather than reducing undocumented immigration, this enforcement-without-reform strategy has diverted the resources and attention of federal authorities to the pursuit of undocumented immigrants who are drawn here by the labor needs of our own economy.

Published On: Thu, May 22, 2008 | Download File

Over the past year and a half, County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) has transformed his police department into an immigration-enforcement agency, gaining international notoriety in the process.  The East Valley Tribune of metro-Phoenix, Arizona, recently ran a series of articles chronicling its investigation of the immigration-enforcement activities of MCSO. Using MCSO case files, interviews with top-ranking officers, and other sources of data, reporters uncovered startling facts about the enormous price tag—both financial and social—of the Sheriff’s antics. 

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Published On: Wed, Aug 06, 2008 | Download File

Over the past year and a half, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has transformed his police department into an immigration-enforcement agency, gaining international publicity in the process.  Yet a growing number of elected officials, media outlets, and religious and civic leaders have criticized Sheriff Arpaio’s tactics and their impact on his community.  In addition, two independent reports by the East Valley Tribune and the Goldwater Institute describe a Sheriff’s department where crime-solving is down and racial profiling and budget expenditures are way up.

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Published On: Wed, Dec 17, 2008 | Download File

Expanding mandatory E-Verify as part of the stimulus package would threaten the jobs of thousands of U.S. citizens, decrease productivity, saddle U.S. businesses with additional costs, and hinder the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ability to provide benefits to needy and deserving Americans – all at a time when we need to stimulate our economy.  The fact is: expanding E-Verify now would decelerate the Stimulus Package and slow America’s economic recovery.

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Published On: Thu, Feb 05, 2009 | Download File

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released various sets of data regarding the accuracy and error rates of the E-Verify employment-verification system. It is important to understand exactly what the DHS numbers mean in order to have a clear picture of how well E-Verify is performing. If it were to become a mandatory, nation-wide program, it would affect every single person who works in the United States, including U.S. citizens. Even tiny error rates would mean big problems for large numbers of citizens and other legal workers.

Published On: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 | Download File

The Department of Homeland Security released a report this week showing that apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border are at their lowest level since 1973, leaving many observers contemplating the factors responsible for this decline.  Is it the recession-plagued U.S. economy or beefed-up enforcement efforts?  New data from a research team led by Wayne Cornelius, Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, sheds light on the decline in apprehensions and reveals the surprising, unintended consequences of border enforcement.

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Published On: Wed, Jun 17, 2009 | Download File

A key part of comprehensive immigration reform will no doubt be the implementation of an electronic employment-verification system (EEVS).  Since EEVS affects every single person working in the United States—immigrants and citizens alike—is it important to consider several key areas that must be addressed to make such a system workable and effective. 

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Published On: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 | Download File