Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) today defended the effectiveness of a controversial employment-verification system designed to prevent illegal immigrants from being hired by American employers.

The E-Verify system, which was recently ordered by President Bush to be implemented by all federal contractors, was introduced in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and has since been adopted by more than 60,000 employers and mandated by several states.

The Web-based system requires employers to enter the personal information of recently hired employees, including their Social Security number and immigration status, into the system within three days of being hired. It then responds about whether the individual is qualified to work in the United States.

At a forum today to address potential solutions to the illegal immigration problem, Burgess said the program has been well-received by residents of his district, and he called on Congress to support it.

“Until gas got to $4 a gallon, this was probably the only issue I heard about in my town halls back home,” Burgess said. “Congress is not responding to the call for action.”

Democrats and civil liberties groups have criticized the system in the past for alleged data errors and reports of employers using it to pre-screen potential employees.

At a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee last month, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the full committee chairman, questioned whether the system was catching its intended targets.

“Forcing Americans to drive to the Social Security office and spend days trying to clear their name will not fix the policy or political pressures that immigration creates,” Conyers said.

In the meantime, the system has also received criticism from groups pressing for tougher illegal immigration enforcement standards.

Speaking at today's forum, T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the system can easily be circumvented by those who use counterfeit documents to provide “clean” Social Security numbers, as employers are often unable to identify them.

“We don't have a system that allows employers to know with certainty who has a right to work in this country,” Bonner said.

Instead, Bonner called for the introduction of national card for every American that would contain their biometric information and would be used when applying for employment — a move that Burgess said would be a “tough sell” to many Americans.

The forum also included remarks from officials pushing for tougher enforcement and implementation of immigration laws.

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County, Va., Board of Supervisors, spoke on his county's recent controversial move to direct police to check the immigration status of all individuals stopped for any offense, including minor traffic violations, as well as to holding illegal immigrants currently in the county's correctional facilities until they can be deported by federal officials.

Stewart said that the new standards have resulted in more than 875 deportations of convicted illegal immigrants and a 19.3 percent decrease in the county's crime rate.

“We have taken our neighborhoods back,” Stewart said.