Sen. Katie Britt Drops E-Verify Bill to Stomp Out Hiring of Illegal Workers

A Senate Republican has taken action to bar U.S. companies permanently from hiring workers who are not authorized to live or work in the United States, taking the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown one step further.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) on Thursday will introduce legislation to make the Mandatory E-Verify Act of 2026 permanent and required for all U.S. employers, regardless of business size, Britt’s office shared with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.

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E-Verify is a web-based system for employers who choose to enroll in the program to instantly check a job applicant’s work documents against federal records. It has been around for 30 years and was created by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

However, despite pushes by lawmakers through the years, it has not been made a national requirement, the result of big business lobbyists’ ongoing efforts to maintain a cheaper, illegal workforce.

Roughly 8.3 million illegal immigrants were employed in the U.S., as of 2022, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York. That number is believed to have grown to 10.8 million illegal immigrant workers as of last year, according to Britt’s office.

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