On June 6, 2008, President Bush issued an executive order mandating all federal government contractors to use E-Verify to verify employment eligibility for all newly hired and future employees that will be working in federal contracts. Employers are also to use E-Verify to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term and all persons performing work within the United States on the federal contract. Under the current E-Verify rules, you are not allowed to use E-Verify to screen current employees, but are required to re-verify employees who will be working on that federal contract. The federal government will be modifying the E-Verify system process to accommodate this new provision.

While states like Colorado have backed off of using E-Verify by creating alternative programs to verify work eligibility, the trend nationally is to make E-Verify mandatory. There are several bills in Congress including the Save Act which makes E-Verify mandatory for all employers across the United States. While this bill has not been enacted or signed into law at this time, it signifies the federal government’s push to get employees to use E-verify.