Tuesday, July 24, 2007

An interesting CQ story about the use of the Basic Pilot program (the Employment Eligibility Verification System) to check the immigration status of employees. Currently, for the federal government, in addition to House and Senate offices and committees, only the "Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters and field offices, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Federal Protective Services in Philadelphia, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Police in Montrose, N.Y." use the Pilot program.
But that could maybe change (e.a.):

James Jay Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in an interview that DHS is likely to require federal employees and contractors to use EEVS. “That’s probably going to happen. . . . I’ve been told that’s in the works and could well be coming down the pike,” he said.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said in an interview that the president could issue an executive order that federal contractors use EEVS, and federal employers could be required to as well, although contractors are far more likely than the federal government to have hired an illegal worker.

It seems as though the Department of Homeland Security has been instructed to see if it could issue such an order...There seem to be some rumors going around about the possibility of this policy being put in place--or at least maybe some investigation into it. Any readers have any more info.? Is this some policy being seriously considered, and/or is the administration trying to win some support by looking like it might support more immigration "enforcement"?