Immigration Raids Reveal Holes in Government’s Tool to Verify Workers

E-Verify can be circumvented with use of stolen identities, false documents

By Paul Kiernan and Robert McMillan of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"The program, called E-Verify, has vulnerabilities that enable migrants in the U.S. to illegally obtain jobs at American companies."

"E-Verify, which matches names to Social Security numbers, has limited access to many other official databases with personal information. It doesn’t use biometric evidence or, in many cases, a photo to verify a new hire’s identity. It can thus be circumvented with a stolen Social Security number and fake driver’s license"

"In 2010, a USCIS contractor found roughly half of unauthorized workers run through E-Verify received an inaccurate finding of being legally employable, primarily because of identity fraud."

"E-Verify can check if someone’s name matches with their Social Security number. But it can’t perform photo-matching for state-issued IDs such as driver’s licenses. According to DHS, 10 states don’t share driver’s license data with the system.

E-Verify processed more than 43 million workers in fiscal 2024, finding 98.5% of them “confirmed as authorized to work.” But a 2021 audit by the DHS inspector general found 54% of all reviewed individuals proved their identity with a driver’s license, which—unlike a federal document such as a passport—can’t be compared with photos in government systems.

That means clearing E-Verify can be as easy as obtaining the name and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and printing that information on a fake ID."