Sponsors (43)
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make mandatory and permanent requirements relating to use of an electronic employment eligibility verification system, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by Ken Calvert · Last progress January 9, 2025
The bill strengthens and nationalizes employment-eligibility verification to reduce unauthorized hiring and identity fraud and to protect good‑faith employers, but does so at the cost of substantial new compliance and federal expenses, increased privacy and discrimination risks, and heightened penalties that could cause job disruptions and legal exposure for workers and businesses.
Employers and the broader labor market: a nationwide, automated employment-eligibility verification system plus photo/identity checks aims to reduce unauthorized hiring and identity-fraud in hiring, improving payroll accuracy and deterrence against document fraud.
Employers who use the system in good faith: clearer safe-harbors, timelines, and evidentiary rules reduce legal uncertainty and give employers protection from civil/criminal liability when they follow verification procedures.
Individuals whose Social Security numbers are compromised (including minors and identity-fraud victims): a new SSN suspension/blocking mechanism lets victims block SSN use in E-Verify and require secure reestablishment procedures, reducing further fraudulent employment and identity theft.
Large numbers of workers (especially immigrants and those with outdated records): automated tentative nonconfirmations, nationwide reverification, and stricter verification requirements risk delays, job interruptions, or wrongful loss of employment while individuals resolve discrepancies.
Employers (particularly small businesses and staffing agencies): substantial new administrative, training, recordkeeping, and technology costs — plus operational burdens from photo-matching, pilot participation, and expanded documentation requirements — raise compliance expenses and complexity.
Workers and immigrants: expanded data-sharing, use of non-governmental designees, and new SSN-handling features increase privacy and security risks (potential misuse, leaks, or broader exposure of sensitive identity data).
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Overhauls federal E-Verify and employer verification law: funds SSA verification costs, adds SSN-protection tools and ID-authentication pilots, tightens employer duties, raises penalties, and limits state rules.
Rewrites and strengthens the federal employment-eligibility verification system by requiring DHS to operate a rapid electronic verification system, funding SSA costs of responding to verification inquiries, and expanding employer verification duties and penalties. The bill creates identity-authentication pilot programs, new fraud protections and SSN-usage safeguards, audit and referral requirements, changes preemption and limited state enforcement rules, and revises civil penalties and debarment authority for repeat violators. The measure affects employers, immigrants and workers, SSA and DHS operations, and state enforcement regimes. It phases in several changes over months to years, requires interagency agreements on funding and reporting, and adds privacy, anti-fraud, and good-faith provisions tied to use of the electronic verification system.