Should the federal government require the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers?
No
Cory Booker (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, New Jersey
Booker is no longer running for president. “No, it should not. As for committing to any comprehensive reform, I would first want to review all components,” Booker told The Post. “Historically, I think Democrats have been too willing to trade basic human rights and dignity for immigrants in exchange for a ‘grand compromise’ on immigration.”
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Steve Bullock (Dropped out)
Governor, Montana
Bullock is no longer running for president. “As Attorney General of Montana, I opposed a measure that would have run legal status checks on every person seeking state jobs or services, and I’d oppose similar action at the federal level,” Bullock told The Post. “Policies like this don’t just increase government bureaucracy, they discourage people from seeking necessary services.”
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Bill de Blasio (Dropped out)
Mayor, New York City
de Blasio is no longer running for president. De Blasio does not support requiring the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers, he told The Post.
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Kirsten Gillibrand (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, New York
Gillibrand is no longer running for president. Gillibrand does not support requiring the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers.
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Bernie Sanders (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Vermont
Sanders is no longer running for president. Sanders told The Post he supported “a smart and fair employment verification system” in April 2019, and his campaign confirmed that he supported it if the system was improved. In November, his campaign said he is opposed to mandating E-Verify. “Not in its current form,” a campaign spokesperson said. “Any mandatory electronic verification system must protect the due process of workers and contain the strongest possible protection against abuse and error. Right now, the E-Verify system is riddled with errors, infringes on security and privacy rights, and places tremendous burdens on workers and employers. As President, [Sanders] will end workplace raids and shift the focus of enforcement from workers to employers who mistreat their workforce.”
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Marianne Williamson (Dropped out)
Author
Williamson is no longer running for president. “No. E-Verify is not always accurate,” Williamson told The Post. “It needs to be made more accurate.”
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Andrew Yang (Dropped out)
Tech entrepreneur
Yang is no longer running for president. “E-Verify isn’t good at achieving the goals of enforcing our border laws or protecting American jobs,” Yang told The Post. “Tens of thousands of false positives get in the way of Americans working, and putting a barrier between businesses and the people they want to hire is never good for promoting work. The system has also caused economic harm to states and driven individuals who are here without permission deeper into the shadow economy.”
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Only as part of a compromise
Said they would not support this unless it was part of a deal including a path to citizenship
Michael Bennet (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Colorado
Bennet is no longer running for president. Bennet supports E-Verify only as part of a compromise, he told The Post.
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Mike Bloomberg (Dropped out)
Former New York mayor
Bloomberg is no longer running for president. Bloomberg does not think the federal government should require the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers, but would support the E-Verify program as part of a compromise, a campaign spokesperson told The Post.
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Pete Buttigieg (Dropped out)
Former mayor, South Bend, Ind.
Buttigieg is no longer running for president. “I support mandatory E-Verify only as part of comprehensive reform that includes a path to citizenship and an overall modernization of our immigration system. Because there are systemic problems with E-Verify today, any expansion of its use should also be conditioned on improving the system,” Buttigieg told The Post in June.
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Julian Castro (Dropped out)
Former mayor, San Antonio
Castro is no longer running for president. “As part of enacting a more sensible and humane immigration system with a pathway to citizenship, we should overhaul employment verification processes to ensure they are cost effective, sensitive to privacy concerns and designed to limit false positives,” Castro told The Post. “We must also ensure our immigration visa system meets the needs of American businesses, which depend on access to labor.” His campaign emphasized the need to improve the existing system before he would consider such a compromise.
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John Hickenlooper (Dropped out)
Former governor, Colorado
Hickenlooper is no longer running for president. “We need to address this issue in comprehensive immigration reform legislation, Hickenlooper told The Post. “It's important we fix our immigration system through a comprehensive approach instead of playing politics with individual proposals.”
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Amy Klobuchar (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Minnesota
Klobuchar is no longer running for president. Klobuchar does not think the federal government should require the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers, but would support the E-Verify program as part of a comprehensive reform that includes a path to citizenship for those currently working without documentation, her campaign told The Post.
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Seth Moulton (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Massachusetts
Moulton is no longer running for president. “I would support an E-Verify program as part of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for all those currently working without documentation,” Moulton told The Post. “The database needs to be improved, and we can do that.”
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Tim Ryan (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Ohio
Ryan is no longer running for president. Ryan would support requiring E-Verify only after improvements to the accuracy of the program and as part of a comprehensive reform that includes a path to citizenship for those currently working without documentation, his campaign told The Post. “No, I do not support requiring employers to use E-Verify, as mistakes and mismatches within the system disproportionately and negatively impact legal foreign workers,” he said. “The system also imposes unnecessary burdens and potentially problematic liability issues on employers, and can have an outsized negative impact on our agricultural economy. We can and must work toward better solutions that pave a path to citizenship and encourage legal labor within the United States, but E-Verify’s system should be optional and decided on a state-by-state basis, not federally mandated.”
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Joe Sestak (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Pennsylvania
Sestak is no longer running for president. Sestak would support requiring the E-Verify program only as part of a comprehensive reform that includes a path to citizenship for those currently working without documentation, he told The Post.
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Eric Swalwell (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, California
Swalwell is no longer running for president. "We should pass comprehensive immigration reform, which should include a modern electronic verification program,” Swalwell told The Post.
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Yes, if improved
John Delaney (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Maryland
Delaney is no longer running for president. “I support an E-Verify system that works,” Delaney told The Post.
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Tulsi Gabbard (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Hawaii
Gabbard is no longer running for president. Gabbard told The Post that she supports requiring the use of E-Verify to check the legal status of all hires by private employers, if the system is improved.
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Unclear/No response
Joe Biden
Former vice president
Biden did not provide an answer to this question.
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Kamala D. Harris (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, California
Harris is no longer running for president. Harris did not provide an answer to this question.
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Jay Inslee (Dropped out)
Governor, Washington state
Inslee is no longer running for president. Inslee did not provide an answer to this question.
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Beto O'Rourke (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Texas
O'Rourke is no longer running for president. O'Rourke did not provide an answer to this question.
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Deval Patrick (Dropped out)
Former governor, Massachusetts
Patrick is no longer running for president. Patrick did not answer this question by publication.
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Tom Steyer (Dropped out)
Billionaire activist
Steyer is no longer running for president. Steyer did not provide an answer by publication.
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Elizabeth Warren (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Massachusetts
Warren is no longer running for president. Warren did not provide an answer to this question.
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Background As of last year, 779,722 employers had enrolled in E-Verify, a federal program that checks employee documents that show legal authorization against federal databases to prove their authenticity. The federal government and federal contractors are required under current regulations to use the program. The unsuccessful 2013 immigration reform effort, supported by Democrats, would have made E-Verify mandatory for all employers over a five-year implementation period as part of a process that would have granted legal status to most people living and working in the country without documentation. But liberal activists have opposed implementing a system without a path to citizenship, since it would end employment opportunities for those now in the country.
The Post is sending detailed questionnaires to every Democratic candidate asking for their stances on various issues. See all the issues we’ve asked about so far.
See our other questions on immigration:
- Would you seek the repeal of criminal penalties for people apprehended while crossing the border?
- Do you support a return to the Obama administration’s 2014 policy that focused deportation efforts on recent border crossers, convicted criminals and national security threats?
- Do you support a temporary freeze on all deportations?
- Do you support extending the existing physical barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border?
- Would you redistribute the responsibilities of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to other agencies? If so, would ICE be abolished?
- Do you support increased border security funding, including new screening equipment at ports of entry and additional resources to process the recent increase of asylum seekers?
- Should the U.S. return to accepting at least 110,000 refugees a year, as the Obama administration planned for fiscal 2017?
- Do you support the option of detaining asylum-seeking families together in non-prison settings until their asylum claims can be processed, or should they always be released into the country while awaiting a decision?
- Do you support a path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million immigrants now living in the country without permission and others in the U.S. under protected status programs?
- Do you support increasing foreign aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in an effort to reduce the flow of asylum seekers to the U.S.?
How candidate positions were compiled
The Washington Post sent a detailed questionnaire to every Democratic campaign asking whether it supports various changes to U.S. immigration and border security policy. Candidates with similar stances were organized into groups using a combination of those answers, legislative records, action taken in an executive role and other public comments, such as policy discussion on campaign websites, social media posts, interviews, town hall meetings and other news reports. See something we missed? Let us know.
This page will update as we learn more about the candidates’ plans. We also will note if candidates change their position on an issue. At initial publication, this page included major candidates who had announced a run for president. If a candidate dropped out after a question was published here, their stance is included under the "Show former candidates" option. If they dropped out before a question was first published, the Post did not reach out to get their stance.
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Candidate illustrations by Ben Kirchner.