Most employers tell us that they don’t want to hire illegal workers. They just aren’t always sure how to tell who’s legal and who’s not. That is where E-Verify comes in. It’s a free and voluntary program that lets employers quickly check the status of new employees online.

E-Verify is an enormous success. It works to make sure the workers’ name and social security number match, and that noncitizen workers are authorized to work. The system is good at keeping illegal workers out of the workplace. About 5% of all the workers who are checked by the system cannot establish that they are authorized to work in the United States. Most of them walk away when they are challenged, even though it’s easy for legal workers to fix their out-of-date information in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database. (Actually, it’s not just easy. It’s a really good idea and will help legal workers get Social Security benefits more quickly if they are hurt on the job or when they retire).

What about legal workers? We don’t want to make getting a new job more difficult than it should be. Here too, the story is a good one. For 98% of the workers who are actually authorized to work in the US, the system returns an instant green light – not even a data mismatch to update. Put another way, for practically everyone except the 5% who aren’t legal, E-Verify provides instant verification. No hassles, no sweat, no window for discrimination. Of course, getting to this point has taken a lot of sweat on the part of DHS. We asked Westat, a respected research firm, to do independent evaluations of E-Verify five years ago and again this year, and the Westat evaluation showed that the “instant green light” rate has risen exponentially in those years, thanks largely to improvements in DHS records.

We’re not resting on our laurels, though. We’re working to get from 98 to 99% or higher. We won’t get to 100% because the 2% of work authorized new hires who get a “yellow light” often have forgotten to update their Social Security record. Perhaps they didn’t tell Social Security when they became a U.S. citizen, or when they married and changed their name. Since that’s a problem that needs to be fixed, some would say that they should be pushed into fixing it. However, we are trying to reduce even those cases. Our newest enhancement will allow E-Verify to check naturalization records electronically, even for people who have never notified Social Security of their new status. (The Westat report does not mention this enhancement, since it will not be implemented for another month or so.)

Early next year, we also will provide a 1-800 number to resolve SSA “yellow lights”, which will eliminate time-consuming personal visits to government offices. As an even longer-term improvement, we plan to regularly update the SSA database with naturalized citizen data to prevent mismatches in the future. In addition, we will continue to bring more of our records on line, so that no worker gets a “yellow light” because our records are not up to date; that effort is also underway.

At the same time, we are improving the enforcement capabilities of E-Verify. In order to prevent illegal workers from simply stealing the name and Social Security number of a legal worker, we are putting photos on line, so employers will see the photo that should be on the ID the worker presents.

As a result of these changes, E-Verify is a remarkable success story. The number of employers using it has doubled in each of the last few years, and enrollments are increasing by a thousand employers a week.

It’s an iron law of Washington, though, that if you actually take immigration enforcement seriously, you’re going to make a lot of powerful interests angry. And so it’s not a surprise that the success of E-Verify has engendered a big increase in criticism.

Probably the most aggravating claim, made in a recent article by a business lobbyist, is that E-Verify could increase discrimination against immigrants. I don’t understand why a business representative would accuse his own industry of being prone to discrimination, but even if that’s so, E-Verify won’t make employers more likely to discriminate. In fact, the Westat report found that employers using E-Verify said they were more willing to hire foreign-born workers, not less. Rather than promoting discrimination, E-Verify is actually becoming a safeguard against discrimination, because it objectively verifies the employment authorization of foreign-born workers who might otherwise be the subject of subjective guesses about employment eligibility.

Stewart A. Baker
Assistant Secretary for Policy

Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding Donald E. Powell spoke on the status of recovery efforts and federal support and resources to local leadership to the "Citizen Leadership in Post-Katrina New Orleans" group at the National Press Club on November 29, 2007.

Our primary mission at DHS is protecting our nation and our citizens, but as the newest and third largest agency in the federal government, we must also tackle hefty administrative challenges on a regular basis. One example is our headquarters location. We currently have employees scattered throughout 70 buildings across the National Capital Region which – among other difficulties – impedes our communication and effectiveness.

DHS representatives are often asked whether it is true that whatever is done to strengthen security must be at the expense of privacy, as if it were a zero-sum game. As Secretary Chertoff said in Montreal before an international conference of the data privacy community, such a balance is subjective and fails to recognize that privacy can and must be preserved while securing the homeland. Reasonable people want security and privacy, and would prefer not to assign a relative value to each fundamental right.

Moreover, adopting the balance paradigm effectively denies the ability of our leaders and institutions to craft policies that achieve both of these aims. Why assume the tradeoff, when we can adopt policies and employ new technologies that support privacy and security alike?

DHS policy is to uphold both privacy and security, because both are fundamental rights and one positively impacts the other.

Consider for example, the fair-information practice principle of transparency. DHS posts its System of Record Notices and Privacy Impact Assessments on our website. These documents inform the public what personal information the government is collecting; how it will be used and shared; what consent, access and redress rights the individual may have; how the information will be protected; and how compliance with these protections is audited. Privacy is enhanced by revealing what the government is doing, and security is enhanced by DHS supporting systems intended to protect the public.

In his prepared remarks to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on December 5, 2006, Fred Cate, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, noted that he had been “struck by how closely connected privacy and security really are.” The thrust of Cate’s remarks was that good privacy protection not only can help build support for the appropriate use of personal data to enhance security, it can also contribute to making security tools more effective. I agree with Professor Cate. Protecting privacy while protecting the homeland builds public trust in our institutions. I see privacy and security as compatible and supporting partners in our mission to use information effectively to protect the homeland.

Hugo Teufel
Chief Privacy Officer

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my colleagues at DHS for their hard work protecting our nation. I am very grateful for the 208,000 dedicated men and women who make up our department. Their commitment to the security of our homeland has played a pivotal role in preventing another attack since 9/11.

While you are traveling this holiday season, Transportation Security Officers will be hard at work in our airports making sure that dangerous people and items are not brought aboard aircraft. The men and women of Customs and Border Protection will not rest over the holiday weekend as they stand watch at our nation’s borders. The Coast Guard will continue to patrol our waters, rescuing those in distress while maintaining our maritime safety and security. ICE and the Secret Service will continue their mission to keep us safe from bad people and bad things. FEMA will continue its efforts to help those in Southern California recover from the devastating wildfires, and Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue to process immigration applications and assist Iraqi refugees. Each member of the DHS family is crucial to our mission of securing America, I am truly thankful for their service.

I’d especially like to give thanks for our troops serving abroad, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. As I mentioned last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Iraq recently and meet many of these brave soldiers. Their commitment to our country remains steadfast and I encourage you to keep them in your thoughts this Thanksgiving.

And finally I want to thank all Americans for doing their part to keep us safe. Whether it be reporting suspicious activity or preparing a Ready kit for your family, everyone can play a part.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Michael Chertoff

Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding Donald E. Powell Highlights Community Rebuilding of New Orleans with Harvard Fellows.

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. This week promises to be challenging, as the Air Transport Association has predicted a four percent rise in Thanksgiving passenger levels from last year, when 23.6 million people went through the country’s commercial airports. It’s a stressful time for air travelers with lines at the sky cap, lines at the check-in counter, lines for coffee and snacks, and lines at the checkpoint.

We can’t do anything to speed up the other lines, but I can assure you that we are doing everything we can at TSA to make your holiday security experience an efficient and smooth one. Our Thanksgiving operations strategy involves running checkpoints throughout the country at full capacity, with extended hours, to accommodate the holiday travel crowds. Our National Deployment Officers, a mobile force that provides additional screening support nationwide, will be deployed to eight of the nation’s busiest airports, including Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, Chicago O’Hare Airport and Washington-Dulles International Airport – and they can be redeployed to another airport at a moments’ notice if the need arises.

We’ve authorized the maximum overtime usage for Transportation Security Officers, who will be missing holiday time with their families so they can assist you in making it safely to see yours. TSA headquarters and local airport administrative staff will also be volunteering throughout the holiday weekend to assist passengers.

Lastly, TSA will be in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration and our stakeholders to monitor any issues, including weather, that could cause problems in the aviation system. Our Federal Security Directors, who manage security on-site in airports, have already met with their airport partners and appreciate their active participation in efforts to keep the security process moving.

We’re doing all we can, but we need your help as well for this holiday travel season to be a success. What can you do? Help us quickly diagnose that you’re not a threat by packing and dressing security-smart. It will get you through the checkpoint faster and help us keep wait times down.



Lots of common, harmless items can look like threats in an x-ray image, especially if they are hidden by lots of clutter. To help you prepare for your next flight, TSA has launched an awareness campaign called SimpliFLY. Here are some quick tips to SimpliFLY your trip:

• Pack an organized carry-on bag using layers – a layer of clothes, then electronics, more clothes, and then a layer of other items like toiletries. This will help security officers see what’s in your bag.
• Have your boarding pass and ID ready for inspection when you get to the checkpoint.
• Remove your shoes, suit jacket, coat and bulky sweaters and place them in a bin for the x-ray machine. If the officer can get an unobstructed view, there’s less of a chance you’ll get held up with additional screening. Don’t wear complicated lace-up shoes or boots that are difficult to remove and put back on.
• Place any oversized electronics (laptops, full-size video game consoles, DVD players and video cameras that use cassettes) in a separate bin. iPods and other smaller electronics can stay in your carry-on bag.
• Follow the 3-1-1 rule for liquids and put your one quart baggie in the bin to be x-rayed. Even better, put all your liquids in your checked bag.
• If you’re not sure about whether you can bring an item through the checkpoint, put it in your checked bag or leave it at home. Click here to see the list of prohibited items.
• Specifically for the holidays, remember that food and gift items (liquor, perfume, antique weapons) can fall under the 3-1-1 rules or be on the prohibited items list.

By following these simple rules, you can play a critical role in security by letting us focus on the real threats. Thank you for your efforts to make this Thanksgiving travel season a safe one.

Kip Hawley
TSA Administrator

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's statement on the resignation of Fran Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

Donald E. Powell, the president’s top official for Gulf Coast rebuilding, spoke about the critical partnerships between federal, state, and local governments in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and the unprecedented federal investment in the area on November 17, 2007 to the National League of Cities.