Thread: E-Verify helps minorities

E-Verify helps minorities

By REP. LAMAR SMITH | 9/14/11 9:39 PM EDT

Congress has the opportunity to pass a bill that could open up countless jobs for unemployed American minorities. It would require that all U.S. employers use the E-Verify program.

E-Verify quickly identifies people illegally working here and protects jobs for American workers. It will especially benefit unemployed minorities.
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Opponents who claim E-Verify is discriminatory are the same people who call any immigration policy with which they disagree anti-minority. They have lost their credibility on this issue.

E-Verify, a Web-based program, is not discriminatory. It doesn’t ask race, creed or ethnicity. The program just checks workers names and Social Security numbers to verify that they are eligible to work in the United States. E-Verify does not discriminate based on race; but it does distinguish between legal and illegal. There’s nothing improper or unfair about that.

The need for an E-Verify system is more crucial than ever. Of the 23 million Americans who are now unemployed or have given up looking for work, 19 million are Americans without a college degree who are most hurt by unskilled illegal immigrants.

Seven million illegal immigrants work in the United States in jobs that should be available to unemployed Americans. Consider some of the current unemployment rates among minorities: 25 percent of Hispanic Americans and 30 percent of blacks with only a high school education can’t find a job.

Young adults ages 18 to 29 confront an even bleaker situation. Thirty-four percent of all Americans in this age bracket with only a high school education cannot find work. It is even worse for minorities: 35 percent for Hispanics and 45 percent for blacks in the first quarter of 2011.

The facts show that E-Verify benefits minority workers by opening up jobs, increasing wages and reducing job competition by wiping out an illegal workforce.

For example, after illegal workers are arrested and detained during Immigration and Customs Enforcement worksite enforcement actions, many businesses replace them with American minorities.

This proved true when Georgia’s Crider Inc., a food processor and manufacturer, lost more than 600 illegal workers after an ICE worksite enforcement action. The company increased wages a dollar an hour and attracted legal workers — primarily African-Americans from the local community.

This was also the case at Swift & Co., a national meat-packing business. After ICE arrested nearly 1,300 of its workers, Swift raised wages and found U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to hire from the surrounding areas.

Local law enforcement officials in Phoenix recently conducted worksite enforcement actions at several Pei Wei restaurants and found the restaurants had employed many illegal immigrants, including some as dishwashers.

A local TV news program followed up and found that hundreds of unemployed American workers lined up to interview for these now open jobs — including the dishwashing jobs that some claim Americans won’t do.

There are stories like these all over the United States, and the results are the same. Enforcing immigration laws opens up jobs for unemployed Americans.

E-Verify could help unemployed Americans of all races and backgrounds get back on the payroll and earn a living for themselves and their families. There’s nothing unfair about that.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is chairman of House Judiciary Committee.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/09 ... z1XzH50ayk

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Of course the more the Elitist Special Interest Groups financially benefit from the ILLEGALS the more money that is poured into the coffers of some Elitist Politicians to support the ILLEGALS but this is really not new, the Chamber of Commerce has always been working in support of the ILLEGALS. The ILLEGALS are comfortable with pushing ahead of everyone else including U.S. Citizens who do not receive the same preferential treatment in all areas. U.S. Citizens have already lost “entry levelâ€