New Homeland Security Chief: “I Believe in E-Verify” The Obama administration has delayed the E-Verify rule for an additional three months while it reviews the proposal that would require many contractors to check their employees’ immigration status. But chances of overturning the rule appear slim. “I believe in E-Verify,” the new Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, told the Washington Post. “I believe it has to be an integral part of our immigration enforcement system.” She said the extra time will be used to determine whether the E-Verify system can handle the increased workload. While the review is underway, the House has voted to require contractors receiving economic recovery funds to check their employees’ status through E-Verify. The verification rule was originally set to take effect Jan. 15, but the Bush administration delayed it until February after business groups sued to block it. In a Jan. 30 announcement in the Federal Register, regulators said the effective date is being pushed back to May 21 “in order to permit the new Administration an adequate opportunity to review the rule.” President Bush issued an executive order in June requiring federal contractors to confirm that their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Regulators directed contractors to use E-Verify, an online database run by the Homeland Security Department and the Social Security Administration. The proposed rule would require employee verification by companies holding contracts worth more than $100,000, and subcontracts for services and construction exceeding $3,000. By some estimates, about 100,000 employees per year would have to be verified, nearly double the number that now pass through the system. In December the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and four other business groups filed suit to block the rule. They claimed Congress had created E-Verify as a voluntary program for employers, and the administration had no authority to make it mandatory for contractors. The administration has argued that use of E-Verify is a condition of doing business with the federal government, and no company is required to accept a federal contract. The Chamber also cited the cost of compliance, in both money and time, and argued that companies could be vulnerable to lawsuits by employees who believe they have been discriminated against. “We are hopeful that the incoming administration will agree that E-Verify is the wrong solution at the wrong time,” said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber’s legal arm. The suit is pending in federal district court in Greenbelt, MD.