A newly launched federal system for confirming who's allowed to work in the U.S. is shifting more of the verification burden onto employees themselves — and the shift lands hardest on the Latino-heavy construction, hospitality and logistics crews concentrated in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
What Actually Changes on the Job
Under the older process, an employer's staff typed a new hire's Form I-9 details into the system and flagged whatever came back as a mismatch. E-Verify+ moves much of that responsibility onto the worker: employees log in themselves, submit their own identity documents, and if the system can't immediately confirm their status, they work through the resolution steps on their own screen rather than through a supervisor. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services describes the tool as free to any employer already holding an Employer Access account, and it applies to both in-person and remote hires.
Why Latino Workers Carry Extra Exposure
The industries most exposed to a verification flag are also where Hispanic workers are concentrated in the largest numbers. Nearly a third of the country's construction trades workforce is foreign-born, and that share reaches as high as 61% in specific crafts, an economist with the Associated General Contractors of America told Construction Dive. The Migration Policy Institute points to two separate pressures on this population: the system has long generated false negatives tied to ordinary life events, such as a name change after marriage or naturalization, and a wave of terminated Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole grants has genuinely stripped legal work authorization from people who held it only months earlier — meaning some of the mismatches E-Verify+ now surfaces reflect real status changes rather than clerical errors. UnidosUS, in an August 2026 workforce framework, notes that Latino workers remain overrepresented in the low-wage industries this system now screens most heavily.
New York: Blocking Checks Before They Start
New York has no statewide E-Verify mandate. A bill still parked in the Senate Labor Committee, S3956, would go well beyond blocking a local mandate — its central provision would make it unlawful for an employer to run an E-Verify check on a current employee or on any applicant who has not yet received a job offer, confining the tool strictly to post-offer verification. The measure would also require workplace notices, mandate training for staff who administer the system, and classify improper use, including screening applicants selectively based on how they look or sound, as a violation under the state's Human Rights Law.
Los Angeles: California's Firewall
No government body in California, whether state, county or city, can compel a private employer to enroll in E-Verify. Under a 2011 law, Assembly Bill 1236, state and local agencies are barred from mandating the system except where federal law or a federal contract already requires it. Roughly 20 municipal E-Verify ordinances on the books before that law passed became unenforceable once it took effect.
Chicago: A Fight Still Working Through the Courts
Illinois has taken the opposite approach, regulating the tool rather than restricting it. Under a 2024 amendment to the state's Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, an employer enrolled in E-Verify must notify its workforce within 72 hours of learning that a government agency plans to inspect its I-9 records, and it cannot take adverse action against an employee until the Social Security Administration or the Department of Homeland Security issues a final nonconfirmation. The Justice Department sued to block the law, arguing it discourages E-Verify participation and intrudes on federal authority; a federal judge dismissed the case after the government chose not to file an amended complaint, and the dispute is now on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
The Push for One National Rule
Momentum in Washington points toward erasing this state-by-state patchwork altogether. Introduced by Sen. Katie Britt and co-sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville among other Republicans, the Mandatory E-Verify Act of 2026 would make the program permanent and require every U.S. employer to use it, phased in by industry and company size. "If you come to this country illegally, you shouldn't be here to begin with, and you shouldn't be working in the United States," Britt said in announcing the bill. It has not advanced out of committee, and comparable mandatory-E-Verify proposals have stalled in prior sessions of Congress.
Immigration advocates point to three concrete steps. File any EAD or green card renewal well ahead of its expiration date, since USCIS processing backlogs can create the very authorization gap the system is built to catch. Insist on written notice, not a verbal heads-up, the moment an employer reports a mismatch. And contact the Social Security Administration or DHS directly to resolve a tentative nonconfirmation rather than waiting on an employer to take the lead. In New York, California and Illinois, a worker who believes E-Verify was misused because of their appearance, accent or national origin has a state-law basis to file a complaint — a protection workers in most other states currently lack.
