In another example of how Obama has shifted the executive branch's policies on illegal immigration, the administration is increasingly targeting employers of illegal immigrants – rather than the illegal-immigrant employees – with tough charges and fines, according to a New York Times report in May. In doing so, the report said, the administration has largely forgone high-publicity factory raids in favor of longer-term investigations.
For his part, Romney lauds Arizona's use of the E-Verify federal database. Currently, all federal contractors have to use E-Verify to confirm that an employee is in the country legally. In 2007, Arizona passed a law requiring all companies in the state check their employment rosters through E-Verify. A first offense brings a suspension of a business license; a second brings its revocation. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that E-Verify was responsible for 17 percent of Arizona's working-age illegal immigrants – or, about 92,000 undocumented workers – leaving the workforce in one year.
"I think you see a model here in Arizona," Romney said in a February Republican presidential debate.
Obama's take on E-Verify is more nuanced. "E-Verify can be an important enforcement tool," he said at a press conference in June 2011. But he also said he shares the concerns of civil liberties groups, who contend the database contains too many errors. "I don't want is a situation in which employers are forced to set up a system that they can't be certain works," Obama said. "And we don't want to expose employers to the risk where they end up rejecting a qualified candidate for a job because the list says that that person is an illegal immigrant, and it turns out that the person isn't an illegal immigrant."
A 2011 report for the federal General Accountability Office found that E-Verify correctly confirmed the work eligibility of 97.4 percent of employees checked in fiscal year 2009. But it acknowledged that identity thieves can game the system. E-Verify might be clearing as many as half of illegal immigrants run through the system, because they are using the valid work credentials of someone else.
For a full list of stories about how Romney and Obama differ on the issues, click here.
