Firms ordered to verify workers

However, critics have called into question efforts to mandate E-Verify, saying it's an imperfect system. A report last year by Maryland-based Westat found that 3 percent of foreign-born employees with work eligibility were no-matches, compared to 0.1 percent of U.S.-born employees.

Employees who are considered a no-match must get cleared to work through the Social Security Administration or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Roger Tsai, a Salt Lake immigration attorney.

"Even if you are not an immigrant, even if you are born in the United States, you are going to have to be checked through this system," said Tsai. "There is a possibility the system is inaccurate."

Hickman expressed hopes the new requirement will lead to a more-accurate E-Verify system.

"It's the only tool we've had available, and it isn't totally effective," he said. "Now with the federal government utilizing it on this basis, it will become more effective."

The executive order ties hiring illegal aliens to creating an unstable federal workforce.

"A contractor whose workforce is less stable will be less likely to produce goods and services economically and efficiently than a contractor whose workforce is more stable," the executive order reads. "It is the policy of the executive branch to enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens."

Chertoff said this would only apply to new contracts or if new employees were hired to work on an existing contract. He said the money allotted for the program would be sufficient to handle the new requirement.

Also as part of the immigration update, Chertoff said that the government has so far constructed 328.7 miles of fence along the Southwest border toward its goal of completing 670 miles by the end of 2008.

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