A "False-Negative" Means No Job For You
Testifying before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations, on July 31, 2006 in Plano, Texas, Abel Martinez, a Vice-President at H-E-B (one of Texas' largest grocery chains) noted that "false-negative" error rates in the government's electronic employment verification system ("Basic Pilot") range from 20% to as high as 50%. This means that you, a native-born (or naturalized) U.S. citizen or "green card" holder might not be hired because "the computer" says -in error - that you are not work-authorized.