E-Verify Should Be a Part of the Immigration Reform Package Indicates Miami Immigration Lawyer

Miami, FL (Law Firm Newswire) October 20, 2011 – If the USA ever gets immigration reform passed, E-Verify would need to be a part of that package.

“It’s an open secret that about one in every 20 employees in the U.S. labor force is an illegal alien,” explained Larry S. Rifkin, managing partner at Rikfin & Fox-Isicoff, an immigration law firm with Miami immigration lawyers and Orlando immigration lawyers. “This figure may be even higher in the construction and agricultural industries. If theory works well in practice, and it sometimes does not, E-Verify would accurately identify the vast majority of the estimated eight million immigrants.”

Theoretically speaking, this is what would happen. In actual practice, though, E-Verify is not mandatory, which means there are very few companies or employers who actually check the status of their prospective workers. “Why isn’t E-Verify mandatory?” asked Rifkin. “There has been a proposal every year since 2005 to do just that, but it never got passed because of the rancorous debate and fallout over comprehensive immigration reform. It, like immigration reform as a whole, ended up on the shelf gathering dust somewhere.”

The debate for E-Verify is back. A Republican from Texas is pushing a campaign to make the program become mandatory. He uses the usual reasons for backing this move – it is fair, reliable, efficient and popular.

“Question: is it really reliable and fair? We’re dealing with human input, potential human errors and computers that often go awry for unknown reasons, or because they have been hacked,” added Rifkin. “While the system may well be working favorably at the moment, there are no guarantees it will stay that way. Along the way, the government has apparently forgotten human rights issues as well, as in what recourse does a person have if their information is not correct.”

There have been major changes to this system since it was first implemented and many of the bugs have been ironed out. Some states even encourage potential new hires to check their own E-Verify profile for mistakes. Whether or not any mistakes will be rectified is another question, which loops back to the main flaw in this system, humans putting in the data.

“Let’s not forget that E-Verify is one part of a whole big picture, and by itself, will not accomplish immigration reform,” suggested Rifkin. “Frankly, with the way things are going, immigration reform is looking pretty shaky these days. Whether or not we ever get to using E-Verify may well be a moot point.”

To learn more or to contact an Orlando immigration attorney or Miami immigration attorney, visit http://www.rifkinfox.com.

Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, P.A.
1110 Brickell Avenue
Suite 210
Miami, Florida 33131
Toll Free: (866) 681-0202

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