OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — Some U.S. businesses verify applicants’ eligibility to work using an online government system called E-Verify. When individuals present their documents showing they’re authorized to work, employers can check the validity of that information by using the free tool to compare it with records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

A Homeland Security official has accused authorities in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, of “reckless reliance” on the program after a Jamaica national working as a police officer there was arrested by immigration authorities even though he’d been vetted through E-Verify when he was hired.

But experts say there are few other options for validating information on work eligibility.

A look at E-Verify by the numbers:

The E-Verify system has been in use for nearly three decades. It was established as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to help verify the documents that workers present showing that they are authorized to work.

Unlike I-9 forms, which are federally required for every employer, E-Verify is voluntary unless required in some way by a specific state. Almost half the states require E-Verify for at least some public or private employers, according to an Equifax tally.

The government said the number of employers participating in E-Verify rose to nearly 1.4 million this year, but the system isn’t widely used. About a fifth of U.S. employers use it, according to U.S. Census figures that show about that there are roughly 6.2 million employer companies in the country. But some big businesses do so, including Walmart, Starbucks and Home Depot.

Department of Homeland Security statistics state that E-Verify was used to perform about 43.5 million checks of prospective employees in fiscal 2024. The figure rose toward the end of the fiscal year, as more than 11.5 million checks were run in the final quarter.

The vast majority of prospective employees checked via E-Verify were confirmed as eligible. About 98.3% were automatically confirmed as work-authorized instantly or within 24 hours, and that required no action by the employer or the employee, according to federal data.

About 1.5% were found not to be work-authorized. The remaining prospective employees were later confirmed as work-authorized after taking action to resolve a mismatch, according to E-Verify’s website.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.