E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
Employment Verification

Employment Verification

Verification of an employee's authorization to work has been a tenet of U.S. immigration policy since 1986, when Congress first required employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of their workers. This less-known pillar of immigration enforcement, designed to address the jobs magnet that draws workers into the country illegally,  is receiving new attention as the federal government continues to refine and expand its electronic employment eligibility verification system, known as E-Verify. The research here examines issues associated with electronic employment verification and challenges in developing an effective system.

Recent Activity

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Policy Briefs
October 2007
Social Security 'No-Match' Letters: A Primer
By  Claire Bergeron , Aaron Terrazas and Doris Meissner
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Fact Sheets
June 2007
Document Security Provisions: What's in the Cards?
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Reports
September 2006
Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter
By  Doris Meissner, Deborah W. Meyers, Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Michael Fix
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Policy Briefs
July 2006
Immigration Enforcement: Beyond the Border and the Workplace
By  David A. Martin
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Articles
May 1, 2006
American Immigration Reform from a Scandinavian Perspective
By MPI Staff
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Policy Briefs
November 2005
An Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come? The Case for Employment Verification
By  Tamar Jacoby
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Policy Briefs
November 2005
Eligible to Work? Experiments in Verifying Work Authorization
By  Kevin Jernegan
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Policy Briefs
November 2005
Immigration Enforcement at the Worksite: Making it Work
By  Marc R. Rosenblum

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Recent Activity

Articles
June 28, 2023

Activism on Immigration by U.S. States Is Back, with New Tactics and Different Targets

Renewed U.S. state activism on immigration has echoes of the early 2010s, when Arizona’s SB 1070 defined a Republican-led push to increase enforcement that was ultimately muted by the courts and public backlash. Newer strategies rely on a novel array of tactics including migrant busing, litigation, and lawmaking. States are also moving in opposite directions, with some expanding rights for unauthorized immigrants, as this article details.

Reports
July 2020

Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System: A Catalog of Changes under the Trump Presidency

Now into its fourth year, the Trump administration has reshaped the U.S. immigration system in ways big and small via presidential proclamations, policy guidance, and regulatory change. This report offers a catalog of the more than 400 administrative changes undertaken in areas such as immigration enforcement, humanitarian admissions, DACA, and visa processing—including a look at measures put in places since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reports
May 2019

Immigration-Related Policy Changes in the First Two Years of the Trump Administration

In the two years since President Trump entered office, U.S. immigration policy has changed in many ways. Some actions have received significant media attention and public scrutiny, and others have been implemented with little fanfare. This document chronicles these wide-reaching policy changes, covering immigration enforcement, the immigration courts, humanitarian admissions, visa processing, and more.

Articles
January 24, 2018

Shifting Gears, Trump Administration Launches High-Profile Worksite Enforcement Operations

An unannounced sweep of 98 convenience stores by U.S. immigration authorities—resulting in the arrest of 21 unauthorized workers—may signal a new approach to worksite enforcement under the Trump administration, moving away from a strategy of paper-based audits that resulted in higher employer fines and fewer worker arrests. This article explores worksite enforcement over recent decades.

Reports
January 2018

Trump’s First Year on Immigration Policy: Rhetoric vs. Reality

Looking back after one year in office, it is striking how just closely the Trump administration’s actions on immigration have hewed to priorities Donald Trump outlined in an uncommonly detailed policy speech in August 2016. This report revisits those pledges to assess where the administration has made the most and least headway, and what its policy agenda ahead might look like.

Articles
October 19, 2017

Will White House Immigration Wish List Tank Emerging DREAMer Momentum in Congress?

The Trump administration has released a list of hardline immigration demands—including border wall funding, restrictions on federal grants to “sanctuary” cities, and cuts to legal immigration—in exchange for legislation protecting DREAMers. This article examines the prospects for these proposals and more broadly for a legislative fix to resolve the status of unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Video, Audio
December 15, 2015

Leadership Visions: A Discussion with Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz-Massieu

An MPI Leadership Visions discussion with the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Claudia Ruiz-Massieu, for her first public appearance in Washington, DC. 

Articles
August 26, 2015

Business as Usual? Regularizing Foreign Labor in Costa Rica

With the growing urbanization and consolidation of Nicaraguan immigrants in sectors such as construction and domestic service, Costa Rica has shifted its focus from immigration enforcement to integration. Tension has emerged between the government and private sector as a new mechanism for regularizing unauthorized immigrant workers has failed to gain traction.

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