GovernmentExecutive.com

Companies that contract with the federal government will have to begin verifying that their employees are legally allowed to work in the country starting Sept. 8, the Homeland Security Department announced on Wednesday.

Beginning then, contractors and subcontractors must use the E-Verify system, an online tool that checks a worker's Social Security number and immigration status, for all employees assigned to federal contracts.

Soon after the announcement, the Senate approved by voice vote an amendment to the fiscal 2010 Homeland Security appropriations bill that would make the soon-to-expire E-Verify program permanent.

The amendment, offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., would require federal contractors to use the system. It also includes a provision from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to permanently authorize the EB-5 visa program, which enables foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in the United States to obtain a green card.

The Senate also voted 54-44 to adopt an amendment from Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., that would require the department to build up to 700 miles of fencing along the Southwest border.

The Senate is still expected to vote on an amendment from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would require employers to take action against employees if there was a discrepancy between the information they provided and Social Security databases. Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that it would not proceed with trying to enforce the "no-match rule."

Wednesday's developments coincided with the release of a bipartisan task force report that said overhauling the nation's immigration system and giving millions of undocumented workers a path to legal citizenship is critical to America's national security and economic interests.

Comprehensive legislative changes should be "a first-tier priority for the Obama administration and Congress," said the report, released by a Council on Foreign Relations task force led by former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and Thomas (Mack) McLarty, who served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff.

"The United States, a country shaped by generations of immigrants and their descendants, is badly mishandling its immigration policy, with serious consequences for its standing in the world," the report said.

Significantly, the task force recommended that U.S. employers be required to verify the legal status of their workers. And it recommended that foreigners who come to the United States to work should be required to have an identification card that contains biometric information, such as fingerprints.

In presenting the report on Wednesday, McLarty disputed the notion that giving undocumented workers now in the country a path to citizenship would be akin to giving them amnesty. They would have to first pay fines, learn English, assimilate and wait behind current applicants, McLarty said.