The US Homeland Security department has decided to approve private agents who have volunteered to organize a program to verify immigrant statuses. This is proposed to be undertaken in an electronic format. According to the department of Homeland security, the US public has a right to know which companies adhere to the immigrant worker criteria. However, the e-verify program as it has come to be known, is still in its development stage, and companies that hire immigrant workers are still not pressurized by law, to use the e-verify program. Currently, a paper system is in action. It is a point worth noting that some of the companies that have started using e-verify, have benefitted by it – workers have been identified with fraudulent paperwork as a result of the e-verify program procedures.

Government officials further declared that the US dept of Homeland Security has plans to verify the records of a further thousand employees, using e-verify. The initial audits would be focused on immigrant workers who are directly connected to public safety interests, and the priority of audits would be based on certain intelligence records that show a possibility of fraudulent paperwork.

Dairy farms in the Vermont area have been requested to provide their hiring records to the department of Homeland Security. Many of these farms use a large number of immigrant workers due to the lack of local applications. Around 169000 of the country’s seven million employers have started using the e-verify program to help with their hiring records. When the public is aware of the companies that do use the e-verify program, they are consequently aware of those who go the extra mile to follow US law, and contribute to homeland security. To make this as transparent as possible, US officials have unveiled an approval seal as a pat on the back to companies registered with e-verify. This seal bears the phrase ‘I E VERIFY’ and a waving American flag. Just below the flag it says ‘This business uses E-Verify in its hiring processes to achieve a lawful work force.’

The Congress has funded 137 million dollars to put the e-verify program in place, and has authorized its operations for three years. This only goes to show how seriously it is being considered as a norm to be in future days, as opposed to the current status of using it by choice and not by mandate. The program can currently check the status of 65 million workers across the country.