Although it will probably take some time for the issue of comprehensive immigration reform to come, again, to the fore, recent reports show that efforts to expand the reach of the Government’s controversial e-verify program are already underway. In a recent posting by the Director of Advocacy of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, attention was called to amendments to the House of Representative’s proposed economic stimulus bill that would require all recipients of stimulus funding to be enrolled in e-verify–a program that requires employers to determine the work eligibility of their new employees through the use of a database managed by the Social Security Administration.  We need not take up a new discussion regarding e-verify. It is sufficient to point out that the program is described in several previous postings and has been criticized by many quarters for its statistically significant false negative rates. As we understand it, efforts to attach amendments to the Senate’s version of the stimulus bill have so far been defeated, but it is expected that the issue of expanding e-verify will be revisited by the entire Senate over the next week or so. For readers, what the e-verify shenanigans show is how susceptible the legislative process is to being diverted in controversial directions. What is far worse than no immigration reform is for pernicious amendments  to be attached to the stimulus legislation that would impose even more onerous obligations on employers.¼/p>

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has recently issued an updated I-9 form to be used by employers. The form modifies the type of documents required to establish identity and work eligibility. We provide a link below to additional information on the new form.

Update of I-9 Form

On Monday, January 26, 2009,  Immigration Customs and Enforcement announced the opening of a response center to address questions schools may have concerning the Student-Exchange Visitor Program. We have provided below a link to the Center’s contact information.   

New Student Exchange Visitor Program Response Center Opened