President Obama Comments on E-Verify

During a recent White House press conference, President Obama was asked whether he would veto a mandatory E-Verify bill that did not include immigration reform provisions. Without directly answering the question, Obama stated, “We may not be able to get everything that I would like to see in a package, but we have to have a balanced package.” Though Obama acknowledged that the E-Verify employment authorization system can be “an important [immigration] enforcement tool,” he added a caveat – “if it’s not riddled with errors.”

Skepticism surrounding E-Verify’s accuracy is not new. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have been gradually making improvements to the E-Verify system, many of which are intended to improve its accuracy rate.

The need to attain an acceptable level of accuracy grows as the number of E-Verify users expands. Computerworld reports that more than 250,000 U.S. employers have already signed up for E-Verify, with another 1,300 new businesses enrolling each week. State and local legislation mandating E-Verify use is continually rising. Additionally, in June 2011 two bills were introduced in Congress that would require all employers to use E-Verify. 

Prevailing Wage Determination Data for 2011-2012 Now Available

The Foreign Labor Certification Data Center has announced that prevailing wage determination data for the July 2011 to June 2012 program year are now available. The wage data are effective July 1, 2011, and are posted to the Online Wage Library. The data center also hosts Foreign Labor Certification disclosure data for the Permanent, H-1B, H-2A and H-2B programs.