Thread: House and Senate finding common ground on E-Verify

House and Senate finding common ground on E-Verify

By Erin KellyRepublic Washington BureauThu Aug 8, 2013 10:46 AM

WASHINGTON -- While the Senate and House remain far apart on the best way to overhaul the nation’s broken immigration system, there is strong agreement on the need for an electronic employment-verification system that would affect all U.S. workers and impose huge new penalties on employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants.

The Migration Policy Institute released a side-by-side comparison of the sweeping immigration-reform bill passed by the Senate in June and the five House bills that have passed key committees this year.

The one area where the two chambers’ approaches are almost identical are provisions making it mandatory for employers nationwide to check all new employees through a federal database known as E-Verify.

All employees, including U.S. citizens, would have to undergo the check when they apply for a job to ensure they are legally eligible to work here.

“The workplace will change fundamentally for all workers if this becomes law,” said Muzaffar Chishti, the institute’s director.

Currently, the system is voluntary for most employers. A few states, including Arizona, require employers to use the system under state law. Some federal contractors must use the system.

Under existing law, employers who knowingly hire an undocumented immigrant are subject to minimum fines of $375 per worker for their first offense and $4,300 for their third offense, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Those fines would swell under the Senate-passed bill to $3,500 to $7,000 per worker for a first offense and $10,000 to $25,000 for the third violation.

The bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee would impose fines of $2,500 to $5,000 for the first offense. The penalty for the third violation would be the same as the Senate bill.

“There is a big ramping-up of penalties in both bills,” Chishti said.

The Senate bill gives the Department of Homeland Security four years to improve the current E-Verify system and implement it nationwide.

The House bill gives the DHS only two years, but it permits deadline extensions, if needed.

The House bill would allow private contractors to run the database, while the Senate requires federal employees to operate it.

The rare agreement between the two chambers on an immigration issue reflects bipartisan support for trying to reduce future illegal immigration by making it more difficult for undocumented workers to find jobs.

But big differences between the Senate and House approaches to immigration reform still make an overall compromise tough, especially on how to deal with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, MPI experts said.

“It is certainly the most politically difficult issue for the House,” said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow and director of the institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program.

The Senate bill would offer many of those immigrants a 13-year pathway to citizenship if they underwent background checks, paid fines and back taxes and learned English and American civics.

House leaders are working on a much narrower bill, tentatively called the Kids Act, which would offer citizenship only to certain young immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary Committee also have raised the possibility of offering legal status, but not citizenship, to adult immigrants who entered the United States illegally or overstayed their visas.

That idea was rejected in the Senate and has been denounced by most Democrats and immigrant-rights groups, which argue that it would create a permanent underclass of U.S. residents cut off from the American dream no matter how hard they worked.

The Senate in June passed a sweeping immigration overhaul that would create a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants, double the number of Border Patrol agents on the southwestern border, change the visa system to bring in more high-tech workers, and require employers to use the federal E-Verify system.

The House has been taking a piecemeal approach, passing a bipartisan border-security bill out of the House Homeland Security Committee and four other bills out of the House Judiciary Committee.

Although details vary between the Senate and House bills, they agree on certain key elements beyond E-Verify, including stronger security on the southwestern border, an increase in the number of visas for high-tech workers, and the need for a new program to bring in agricultural workers for both seasonal and year-round work on American farms.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the architects of the Senate-passed immigration bill, said Wednesday that he believes the House and Senate can reach a compromise if the House passes legislation.

Senate and House negotiators would iron out differences in their legislation and come up with a final bill.

“A couple of their pieces are very similar to our bill on agriculture and high tech, letting high-tech people in,” Schumer said in an interview on CNN. “Others are going to be different, but if we can get together at the end of day and compromise, that will be a good thing.”

Congress is in recess until Sept. 9, and the House is not expected to take up immigration reform until October at the earliest because it must first deal with pressing budget issues.

“I actually am optimistic that we will get this done,” Schumer said.

“I have had a lot of discussions with various members of both parties in the House. Things are moving in the right direction.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20130807house-senate-finding-common-ground-e-verify.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary Committee also have raised the possibility of offering legal status, but not citizenship, to adult immigrants who entered the United States illegally or overstayed their visas.

That idea was rejected in the Senate and has been denounced by most Democrats and immigrant-rights groups, which argue that it would create a permanent underclass of U.S. residents cut off from the American dream no matter how hard they worked.

Stop, before I cry.

This son of an immigrant would like to point out that these poor devils who wouldn't be able to become American citizens owe their prosperity to having undercut Americans for jobs. A fair number of them are also getting some form of welfare. And their complaint is????

We have to show people who broke American laws and undercujt Americans for jobs that actions have consequences. Hey, they're infinitely better off here than they would have been there. Enough is enough.
************************************************** ***********
Anmericans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Hey everybody, aren't you sick of this crap. These pathetic excuses to make tens of millions of Marxists voters for the DemoCRAPS. Get back on the telephones, make yard signs, make bumper stickers, call talk radio, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram don't let them be silent on this issue for more than 10 seconds. Even though they are presumably are on our side, they do not talk about it no where nearly enough. It should dominate at least 80% of their air time.

Look up Dennis Michael Lynch's documentary films on the internet by their tile: "They Come to America I" and "They Come to America II." To get maximum viewers he is selling them really cheap $19.99 for 5 copies. Order as many as you can afford and give them to anyone who promises to watch them.

This is the key issue, this is THE ONLY ISSUE at present. Amnesty destroys everything. Do not let Mark Zuckerberger purchase laws. Do not let him and his pals in Silicon Valley purchase our government and the laws it makes.

Fight these scum. Fight them everywhere. Fight for the life our America; fight for freedom; fight for the Constitution. Break these arrogant mega rich despot wannabes!

You're a good man "vistalad." Now lets, all of us, fight harder and give more $$ to the good people at ALAPAC. If we loose this fight, nothing else will matter. "They Come to America I and They Come to America II get the DVDs, look up on the internet by the movie titles, make bumper stickers, yard signs, telephone calls, letters and GET MORE NEW PEOPLE INVOLVED.