March 14, 07

NEWS / Immigration Bill Update: Biometrics for Employment Verification

Helicopter Association International (HAI) reports a coalition of human resource (HR) organizations have joined other lobbying interests by weighing in on proposed employment verification requirements by advocating that biometric identifiers or other technology be used to help employers confirm job seekers??™ identities. The group is calling for biometric information as a component in any comprehensive immigration bill.

HR professionals want to take the ???guess??? out of verifying a job candidate??™s work authorization. Most documents used to establish work eligibility do not include photographs, fingerprints, or other data to link the name on the document with its presenter. Several lawmakers, including Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) have said the lack of biometric identifiers on those documents is a gaping hole in employers??™ ability to verify that a job seeker is eligible to work in the United States.

At present, the Homeland Security Department??™s voluntary ???Basic Pilot??? employment verification system has an error rate considered unacceptable by many lawmakers and many interest groups. However, the call for biometric identifiers to verify work eligibility makes some lawmakers tense because opponents hasten to tag the idea as a lead-in to a national ID card. To respond to those concerns, the coalition is advocating private databases, similar to those in the credit industry, in which individuals could enroll voluntarily when seeking a job.

Two key Senators may offer last year??™s failed immigration bill as a starting point for debate in the 110th Congress. Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and John McCain (R-Arizona) have not been able to agree on provisions to include in a new draft being worked on by Kennedy??™s staff. HAI has learned that some sticking points include organized labor??™s effort to add language on the prevailing wage.

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) has said he will not schedule a markup for a comprehensive immigration bill until President Bush publicly commits to signing such a measure. This stems from the experience last year when House Republicans rebelled against a bipartisan Senate-passed bill that included a guestworker program and legalization provisions for undocumented immigrants.

HAI has also learned that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is making the rounds discussing technical aspects of any immigration measure. Chertoff is primarily involved in talks about employment verification and a ???touch back??? provision to require illegal immigrants seeking citizenship to leave the country briefly.


Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Posted by rotornews Contributed by



Tags: legalization, employment verification, document,