Workplace raids demonstrate the vulnerability of the E-Verify system, experts say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Yahoo! News/CBS News

Wed, July 16, 2025 at 8:39 PM EDT


Omaha, Nebraska — Gary Rohwer built his QuickSteak empire at a meat processing center in Omaha, Nebraska. But then, a tactical team of federal agents raided his facility on June 10, and more than 70 of his assembly line employees were arrested by Homeland Security Investigations.

He showed CBS News an old company photo, disclosing that about half of the employees in that photo were swept up in the raid. "Oh my God, half of them," Rohwer said. "It makes me sad, it really does, because these guys made us successful." Rohwer said he put his faith in E-Verify — the federal system used by more than 1 million employers each year, and which is mandatory in 10 states and by most federal contractors — to confirm the employment eligibility of would-be hires.

"We did everything right, but yet we got penalized big, I mean, big-time," Rohwer said. The government tells employers like Rohwer that E-Verify provides "peace of mind." To green-light employees, the system matches documents, such as licenses and Social Security cards, to a U.S. government database of eligible workers. But it vets paperwork, not people.

Experts say the E-Verify system is broken, not only exposing employers like Rohwer to raids, but also increasing an all too common crime: identity theft. "This is a nationwide problem," Elhrick Cerdan, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations Omaha, who led the investigation into Gary's QuickSteak, told CBS News.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/workplace-raids-demonstrate-vulnerability-e-003900571.html

[Igel]

1. And that's an argument that's also a problem.

If, indeed, half of the workers that Rohwer depends on because, basically, they made him a lot of $ were undocumented but not authorized to be in the country and they stole identities to get around E-Verify, wouldn't that mean they're guilty of the crime of identity theft in a pretty straightforward way?

Oh, wait, they need to be tried. Sure, take the 9 months. Except bail ... They already assumed another's identity once--unless Rohwer and his HR folk are lying--so what's to keep the defendent, formerly Bailey Slone from showing up as Mike Kroneker next week?

Now, think of Rohwer and his HR folk. Called as witnesses, they get to either admit to knowingly employing an unauthorized worker or testify that the guy charged really did present fake ID with intent to deceive. Either way, if the immigrant is here illegally, he's eventually deported--the question is, after paying a fine (that he probably can't afford--go after his family's assets?) or serving jail time or without? Either way, he's in CODIS and maybe NDIS. But one way, Rohwer is also out a chunk of change.

E-Verify. Until we have decent IDs, it's unreliable.

At the same time, a lot of undocumented need documents and E-Verify isn't much of a moral hazard in that regard.

(As an aside, if you sign up to vote ... and your ID checks out .... Which is why most studies of the problem are trash--they depend on the reliability of the system of identification we have. We know it's broken when it comes to E-Verify, we insist that it's 100% reliable when it comes to elections. The electoral ID system's a bit more complicated but after all the hedges and caveats it's still gameable with a lot of fake IDs.)

[SickOfTheOnePct]

3. I was reading up on this last week

i.e., how do undocumented workers get Social Security numbers. It appears that they obtain primarily from people who make it a business to provide fake SSNs...either generated by a random number generator that utilizes the SSN format, using stolen SSNs from current workers, or using SSNs of people who are dead.

What confuses me is why doesn't eVerify pick up on this? Surely they have access to the SSN database; if an SSN is provided via a random number generator, it shouldn't be in the SSN database, or if it is, it should be assigned to someone with a different name. If it's stolen from a live person, same thing - names shouldn't match. If it's taken from someone who is dead, that SSN should show up in the SSN Death Index.

What is the point of all of this data if it isn't used to prevent fraud?

[FBaggins]

2. Trying to think through what this implies

So they're presenting fraudulent identification and SSNs for someone who is allowed to legally work in the US?

Does that mean there's someone else earning social-security credits?

I presume they aren't withholding any taxes... but it must be reported as taxable income (for this other person). What happens at tax time?

[LauraInLA]

5. I am one of the people who once received a letter from the IRS saying someone had used my SS number. I was lucky --

it didn’t cause any problems. However, I recently read about people, in particular lower income individuals, who have had difficulty receiving benefits because their reported income was skewed by SS theft. Imagine trying to apply for Medicaid or school subsidies, etc., and being ineligible because someone was using your SS number.

[quaint]

4. Detained or Deported: Growing List of Immigrants with Legal Status Caught in Crackdowns

MSN

My opinion is that more than "some" of the deportees have permission to stay and work in the U.S. until their cases are resolved. Some have shown up for regular check-ins, had their permissions rescinded, and were immediately arrested. With valid work permits on E-Verify they would be approved for employment.

Not here to argue, just giving my opinion based on what I have heard and read.

[angrychair]

6. Interesting

Even here it seems a lot of people go right to reinforcing the myth of the poor, uneducated, illiterate undocumented immigrant that also has the connections and money to obtain fake documents to fool the e-verify system.
Right up there with the lazy, violent immigrant on welfare that is also stealing all of our jobs.

Why do people default to giving business owners like Rohwer the benefit of doubt in any wrongdoing but not the immigrants he is employing?

It is a documented trend that businesses like this are the people actually facilitating the fake documents (you know the people with the actual resources to do that and who most benefit from the arrangement) so they can employ cheap labor and then use confirmation bias as a way to shift blame to the undocumented immigrant as the source for the fake documents.
Who do you think they are going to believe? The white male business owner or the undocumented immigrant with brown skin?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. If I impled that it's all on the immigrants...

...that was not my intention at all - no question in my mind at all that many, if not most, businesses who are employing undocumented immigrants assisted them in getting fraudulent SSNs. But the fact is that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of undocumented immigrants who have obtained such SSNs can't be denied.