US Immigration: To E-Verify or Not To

The Legal Workforce Act proposed by Texas Republican Lamar Smith was first co-sponsored by 11 House Republicans early this month, a number that has risen to 26 now. The bill is hailed by many as the long sort solution to illegal workers in USA.

E-Verify Bares Its Teeth And Divides The House: The bill will mandate running of an internet based E-verify on all the hired staff an employer has. The same has been voluntary since 1997. The program is slated to roll out in phases with Federal, state and municipal government employers, and companies having more than 10,000 workers having to comply within six months.

Within two years, all other employers would have to comply except for the agricultural industry which relies on immigrant workers heavily which will get an extra year to implement the law. The law would obstruct state laws that impose civil or criminal penalties on employers who fail to use E-Verify. The House is however divided on the idea.

Rep. Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Republican expresses his reservations,” I’m not against E-Verify. My gripe is why must we pre-empt states’ rights when they’re the only government entity that’s serious?” Kris Kobach, lead counsel for the Immigration Reform Law sees a rising conflict amongst Conservatives.
“The bill would establish a fairly toothless E-Verify requirement while de-fanging [the states],” Kobach wrote. Democratic critics say that the law could cost billions of dollars and a bloated bureaucracy.

Ground Check: A Tale of Two States and Many More to Come: Arizona and Georgia are already practising this system and the problems they face are acute. The process weeds out perfectly legitimate American citizens because of errors in their paper work which will take years to correct before they can work. Proponents of the law said that it would end illegal immigration and the lure of jobs but it has done neither. Instead, the measure has resulted in an explosion of the state’s underground cash economy. Neither of these materialized.

Not many industrialists are willing to shut shop and endure poor businesses triggered by a drop in numbers in the work force. Under the table dealings with unauthorized workers have hit revenues from income taxes adversely. Numbers indicate these revenues have experienced a drop of about 13% already.

Georgia has suffered at the hands of this law and agricultural produce in the state has gone down. It is reported that there are more than 11000 unfilled jobs in the agricultural sector.

Such problems and some new ones keep appearing as a result of the E-verify law in US which is causing serious repercussions on the American economy and population. As the law is implemented in other States, there will be more problems and road blocks but the real deal will come to the fore only when the dust settles