"There is no hotline for them to call," he said. "It's still kind of questionable what people are supposed to do."

And Tsai said, employers who hire large numbers of immigrant workers could also face a challenge given the error rate for foreign born workers is 30 times that of U.S. natives.

"It puts employers at the mercy of these federal records that may or may not be inaccurate," Tsai said. "E-Verify is extremely strict."

But advocates for the program, including Ron Mortensen, co-founder of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, says that workers whose information doesn't match up — such as newly wed women who forgot to report a name change — eventually need to clear up those discrepancy anyway.

And Mortensen says that E-Verify would weed out most unauthorized workers who use random Social Security number and random name. It will also, Mortensen says, catch those who steal a child's identity, because employers would notice a 50 year old using a 4-year-old's birthday, Mortensen says, adding, "Wouldn't it be great to say, 'hey, we're protecting your kid's identity from identity theft."'

---

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com