Tag Archives: E-Verify

Government Shutdown Avoided

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Immigration Programs Teeter for Two More Months

Congress averted a government shutdown on Wednesday by a few hours through the passage of a continuing resolution. President Obama signed it that same day and the federal government will be funded until December 11. In March of this year, a similar storyline unfolded, and the budgetary battle was explicitly over funding the Department of Homeland Security and immigration matters.

The immigration news stemming from the continuing resolution is that the four programs that were set to sunset on September 30 have been extended until December 11. While each individual program had its own congressional bill authorizing a longer renewal period or even permanence, none of those were passed. The EB-5 program even had three competing bills that aimed to tweak and improve the program in different ways. The continuing resolution maintains the four programs – CONRAD 30, EB-5 Regional Center, Religious Non-Minister Workers, and E-Verify. That means those programs have another two months until their existence is in peril.

Congress and Immigration

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Four Immigration Programs Will Expire September 30

Capitol Building

Congress returns from its summer recess today, and it is tasked with a litany of difficult decisions and issues. Part of its agenda over the next three weeks will be deciding whether to renew four immigration programs. Those include the EB-5 program, CONRAD 30, E-Verify, and the Religious Non-Ministers EB-4 program. Their vitality to the nation is probably dependent on perspective, but Congress is certain to discuss and contemplate these four programs, given the stakes involved.

The EB-5 program concerns millions of dollars of investment each year, especially now that the program has reached an apex in popularity. It is estimated that the program has generated over 5.2 billion dollars of investment and created 31,000 full time US jobs. One place this investment is going is to the renovation of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

CONRAD30 allows individual states’ health departments to hire up to 30 international medical graduate doctors, so that instead of having to fulfill their two year home residency requirement on the J-1 visa, they are sent to rural and underserved medical areas for three full years.

The blog will provide updates on the four programs throughout the month. Congress has 22 days from today to decide whether to renew these programs or to let them sunset. Bills have been proposed, covering all four programs (EB-5 bills, CONRAD30, E-Verify, EB-4 Religious Workers.

September 30, 2015 is an important date for another reason. The Department of Homeland Security is the federal agency tasked with overseeing immigration in the United States. A congressional, presidential, and political battle in March of this year threatened a de-funding of the agency, but a last minute bill funded the agency until the end of the fiscal year (September 30). The prospect of a government shutdown may yet loom again.

E-Verify Up for Renewal

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E-Verify: To Renew or Not to Renew

This week, the blog has covered the immigration programs that are set to expire and sunset on September 30, 2015. When Congress returns from summer recess on September 8, it will have three weeks to renew the programs like it last did in 2012. The focus today is on the E-verify program.

E-Verify is a controversial verification system used by the US government to make sure that employers are not hiring employees who are not authorized to work. The Department of Homeland Security maintains the program with the Social Security Administration. The system matches an employee’s Form I-9 with US government records and if there is a mismatch, the employer and appropriate agency must resolve the incongruence. The Form I-9 must be filled out by employees along with accurate identification within the first three days of working and employers suffer the ramifications of illegal hiring practices.

DHS adulates the E-Verify’s improved accuracy. Opponents of the system discredit the statistics and purported accuracy, focusing on the unacceptable number of incorrect mismatches and the nightmare that puts employers and valid employees through unnecessarily. They do not see the efficacy of the system in slowing down the hiring of unauthorized workers or making American jobs any less attractive. The system is run at American taxpayer expense to the great consternation of E-Verify’s opponents.

Many states have mandated that all employers use the program to root out unauthorized workers. Other states make it optional. One benefit of E-Verify is that employers who use it are allowed to hire STEM OPT (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics students on their Optional Practical Training) for 29 months instead of 12. This provides for a buffer in between school and other immigration options.

This is bound to be an intensely debated issue over the new few weeks as Congress considers whether to renew the program. Opponents are politically widespread and backed with their own numbers. DHS is staunch in trumpeting the efficacy of the program and many states are ebullient in their adoption.