Krikorian said that doubts about the scalability of the E-Verify system were flat-out misleading. "They have the hardware and the software capacity right now to screen all new hires. It is happening right now," he said.

He also insisted that the number of instances where the E-Verify system had mistakenly identified someone as being ineligible for a job constituted a very small portion of the overall eligibility checks made by employers. "If they were a lot of Americans being somehow turned down, I guarantee that 60 Minutes and others would have been all over it," he said.

According to the about 96% of employees are authorized for work within 24 hours, while about 4% receive initial mismatches. Less than one-half of a percent of those mismatches are later confirmed to be authorized to work, meaning the system is generally reliable in spotting mismatches.