Speech #1100080819

It would do two things very appropriate in the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. It would require the entire Department of Homeland Security to use the basic pilot programalso known as the electronic employment verification system. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made it unlawful for employers to knowingly hire and employ aliens not eligible to work. It required employers to check the identity and work eligibility documents of all employees. The easy availability of counterfeit documents has made a mockery of the 1986 bill. Fake documents are produced by the millions and can be obtained very cheaply. In response to the illegal hiring of immigrants. Congress created the basic pilot program in 1996. This program allows employers to check the status of their workers by checking ones Social Security number and alien identification number against Social Security Administration and Homeland Security databases. The immigration bill before the Senate last year and this year would have required all employers to use the basic pilot program over a period of time by phasing it in. Both the administration and Congress were poised to pass legislation mandating participation in this program. It has been argued that the employment verification system is crucial to enforcing the laws already on the books.