Legal Workforce Act
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make mandatory and permanent requirements relating to use of an electronic employment eligibility verification system, and for other purposes.
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Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Legal Workforce Act
This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create an electronic employment eligibility confirmation system modeled after and to replace the E-Verify system, which allows employers and recruiters to verify the immigration status of individuals. The bill also mandates the use of such a system, where currently only some employers, such as those with federal contracts, are required to use E-Verify.
The bill specifies documents that can establish an individual's identity and employment authorization. During the period starting when a job offer is made until three business days after hiring, the individual must attest to his or her employment authorization, and the employer or recruiter must attest that it has examined the individual's required documents.
Employers shall reverify certain types of employees who were not previously verified using E-Verify.
The Social Security Administration shall notify employees if their Social Security number has been used multiple times in an unusual manner. DHS shall establish programs for blocking and suspending misused numbers.
Employers that are required to use the verification system shall not be liable for any employment-related action based on a good-faith reliance on the system.
The bill establishes a phased-in participation deadline for different sizes and categories of employers, including agricultural employers.
The bill increases civil penalties related to hiring individuals without work authorization. It also preempts state laws relating to hiring and employment eligibility verification, but states may use their authority of business licensing to penalize employers for failing to comply with the bill's provisions.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
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Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Homeland Security, Dept of (DHS)
- Labor, Dept of (DOL)
- State, Dept of (DOS)
- Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services (BCIS)
- Employment & Training Administration
- White House Office
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 251: Legal Workforce Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-251/
"H.R. 251: Legal Workforce Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-251/.
H.R. 251, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-251/.
[H.R. 251: Legal Workforce Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-251/)