January 7, 2009

U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Ombudsman’s Issues Report on Use of E-verify in Arizona

On December 22, 2008, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) Ombudsman issued a report on the use of E-Verify in Arizona. The purpose of the Ombudsman’s report was to explore how E-Verify has been received by the private and public sector employers in Arizona and determine how E-Verify might perform on a national basis if mandated by immigration legislation.

From this study, the Ombudsman determined the following:

• As of December 4, 2008, more than 96,349 employers registered to use E-Verify, which includes voluntary users and those required to participate pursuant to state law (noting that 12 states made the use of E-verify mandatory, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Utah).
• During fiscal year 2008, more than 6.6 million employment verification queries were run by employers.
• According to the USCIS, through an independent research group (Westat), more than 96 percent of E-Verify queries were processed within twenty hours as work authorized.
• According to Westat, E-verify has a 99.5 percent accuracy rate for correctly confirming work eligible employees.
• E-Verify is capable of accommodating up to 45,500 new employer registrations per day and as many as 240 million employee specific inquiries per year.
• Although the USCIS reports less than a 0.4 percent occurrence, the most frequent concern reported by Arizona employers was the issuance of Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) determinations on work-authorized individuals.
• The Inspector General of the Social Security Administration (SSA) found that the SSA’s database has an approximate plus/minus 4 percent error rate.
• The USCIS pre-mismatch typographical error check routine implemented in September 2008, which prompts employers to double-check the information entered in E-Verify, has reduced SSA mismatches by as much as 30 percent.
  

The Ombudsman reported that although mid-sized and large employers appeared relatively satisfied with the speed and accuracy of E-Verify, smaller employers expressed concerns with user-friendliness. Employers also expressed concern including access to E-Verify documentation and the terminology within the documentation. In addition, employers remained confused about the timing and specific processes that must be followed upon the return of a TNC determination. Moreover, the Ombudsman reported that USCIS outreach efforts may not be reaching smaller employers, which represent approximately 50 percent of the existing private U.S. payroll.

Based on these observations, the Ombudsman made the following recommendations to the USCIS: (1) simplify the language used in all E-Verify instructions and documentation; (2) make publicly available all registration and operational documents; (3) ensure education and outreach efforts reach small businesses; (4) implement a tickler/calendar system in E-Verify that is capable of issuing timely system prompts to employers to advise them of their next appropriate steps for each specific open and unresolved TNC; and (5) announce as a goal the intention to replace the current Form I-9 process for employers that voluntarily use E-Verify.