Congress Extends the Basic (Employment Eligibility Verification) Pilot Program

IMMIGRANTS & EMPLOYMENT

IRCA Employment Verification and
Antidiscrimination Protections

CONGRESS EXTENDS THE BASIC (EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION) PILOT PROGRAM
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 16, No. 1, February 28, 2002

Congress has extended for an additional two years the Basic Pilot Program for verifying employment eligibility that was created by section 401(b) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). The program, through which employers can voluntarily enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Social Security Administration to verify the employment authorization of all their new hires, was set to expire in November 2001. The other employment eligibility verification pilot programs established by the IIRIRA —the Machine-Readable Document Pilot and the Citizenship Attestation Pilot—do not expire until May 2003 and June 2003, respectively.

The IIRIRA also required that the INS issue a report, based on an independent evaluation, reporting, among other things, whether the Basic Pilot Program had been successful and whether it had resulted in any discrimination against workers. Though the INS still has not complied with this requirement, Rep. Tom Latham introduced H.R. 3030 on Oct. 4, 2001, to extend the Basic Pilot Program. President Bush signed the bill into law on Jan. 16, 2002 (Public Law No. 107-128). The Basic Pilot Program will now expire in January 2004, since the amendment became effective this January 2002.