The internet-based system allows employers to electronically confirm a potential employee's work eligibility by matching their Social Security number or work authorization information against pre-existing records.
In Massachusetts, the legislature's Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development is considering House Bill 1866, "An Act protecting Massachusetts workers," and its Senate companion, Senate Bill 1169, which would require that all businesses in the commonwealth use the federal program when hiring employees.
"Massachusetts -- like Chicago, like New York City, like a lot of other places -- is waking up to the reality that mass illegal immigration is a serious issue, that it affects people in their states and communities, and that we cannot endlessly absorb the number of people that the Biden administration is allowing to cross the border," comments Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
He advises Governor Maura Healey (D) to stop pushing for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to speed up the work authorization for migrants and instead get with the E-Verify program.
"She needs to start talking to the folks in Washington, D.C. and making it clear, along with a lot of these other deep blue state leaders. They need to make it clear to the administration that this is not tolerable, and it's unsustainable," Mehlman submits.
These bills in Massachusetts will expand the current state law that already requires E-Verify for state agencies.
