January 8, 2009 - WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that more than 100,000 employers have signed up to participate in E-Verify, a free, easy to use online system that equips participating employers with the tools to quickly and effectively verify the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees.

The Bratton Corp., a construction products supplier from Kansas City, Mo., employing about 200 people in Kansas City and Pasadena, Calif., is the 100,000th employer to participate in E-Verify. 

“We congratulate The Bratton Corporation for joining the thousands of employers who participate in E-Verify, and whose numbers are growing by a thousand each week,” said USCIS Acting Deputy Director Mike Aytes.  “They all have taken a significant step toward maintaining the integrity of the American workforce.” 

Employers have run more than two million queries through the system since October 2008, and employers have been able to automatically verify more than 18 million workers’ eligibility since 1997. USCIS has launched major enhancements since E-Verify’s inception to improve the accuracy of the system’s automatic confirmation processes, including verifying naturalized citizens directly with USCIS records.

Currently, approximately 96.1 percent of qualified employees are cleared automatically by E-Verify, and  99.6 percent of all work-authorized employees are verified without receiving a tentative nonconfirmation or having to take any type of corrective action.

USCIS plans to make additional enhancements in 2009 to E-Verify and the employment authorization process, including amending the list of acceptable identity documents workers may present to employers to verify employment eligibility and adding passport data and photos to the system to reduce identity theft.  Beginning this month, the federal government will require that certain federal contracts contain a clause requiring the contractor and certain subcontractors to use E-Verify.

While participation in E-Verify is voluntary, 15 states now require certain employers to participate and comply in some manner with a federal work authorization verification program. 

E-Verify evolved from the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program and was offered on a voluntary basis in 1997 to employers in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas, the five states with the largest immigrant populations. E-Verify was offered to all employers as a free web-based program in 2004.  USCIS administers the program in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

Source