E-Verify is launched to assist US employers

So verification systems are back. E-Verify (formerly known as the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.

Few federal agencies are using the government’s own employment-verification system designed to prevent hiring illegal aliens, with just the Department of Homeland Security and a few other scattered offices having signed up.

That all changes next month, when the federal government takes the lead in trying to prove the system is user-friendly and works. Under a new directive, every new federal hire is required to be checked against E-Verify, the new name for a decade-old system known as the Basic Pilot Program that has become the backbone of many companies’ hiring process as they try to weed out illegal aliens.

The newly re-branded system gets a formal public release at a press conference today at the headquarters for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with officials hoping to prove to businesses the system is running, is easy to use and can help them avoid trouble from an expected crackdown on employers.