This will be a BIG ONE. Contact your Congress and Senate and turn up the fire on this one this morning.

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http://www.numbersusa.com/hottopic/work ... cation.htm

HOT TOPIC: Workplace verification / Block illegal workers

House to Vote Thurs. on H.R. 4437, An Attempt to Strengthen Enforcement Against Illegal Immigration & to Keep Illegal Aliens Out of U.S. Jobs

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437) is the attempt by the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives to show the public that they are paying attention to the national outcry against illegal immigration.

H.R. 4437 is a good start, primarily by finally mandating all businesses to use an electronic system to check if all new hires have the legal right to work and by including a number of enhancements of border enforcement. But the bill falls far short of representing a fullscale effort to control illegal immigration.

Large numbers of the 92-Member Immigration Reform Caucus are demanding that H.R. 4437 (passed last week by the Judiciary Committee) be strengthened considerably by amendments on the floor when the bill comes up for debate on Thursday. More than 50 amendments have been offered. The House Rules Committee has yet to rule which ones will be allowed for debate and votes. An example of the measures that are being offered for strengthening can be found in the True Enforcement Act (H.R. 4313) and H.R. 3333 by the Caucus Chairman, Rep. Tom Tancredo.

Perhaps the most important item to be added to H.R. 4437 is a requirement that the federal government has to cooperate with local officials and has to pick up any illegal alien that local law enforcement might detain.

Mandatory Employment Verification

H.R. 4437 would finally mandate that every employer in the United States use the federal Internet/phone verification system that quickly and easily determines if a new hire is legally eligible to work here. Currently called the Basic Pilot program, this system for verifying Social Security numbers would stop most illegal aliens from getting jobs with legitimate employers. While no single enforcement measure would stop all illegal immigration, this is the single-most important solution to rectifying our nation’s half-hearted effort to tackle the problem.

Under the bill, all private employers would be required to use the Basic Pilot within two years of enactment to determine every new hire’s eligibility to work. By three years following enactment, federal, state and local governments, and the military would have to verify new hires. Within six years, all employers would have to run all their employees through the system. Employers that use the system in good faith are shielded from liability for hiring illegal aliens, and tough penalties are included for non-compliant employers.

The employment verification language in H.R. 4437 provides businesses an easy way to ensure compliance with the law and avoid inadvertent hiring violations. Perhaps most importantly from a business standpoint, enactment of this bill will allow all community-minded patriotic businesses the peace of mind that their competitors will not be undercutting them by hiring illegal labor.

State and Local Involvement

Currently, there are 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents working to apprehend millions of illegal aliensâ€â€