Bill to ensure workers' citizenship likely to die, sponsor says

March 22, 2012 7:18 PM




A Republican bill to curb illegal immigration was likely killed Thursday at the hands of its own party, according to its sponsor.

Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, walked red-faced out of the committee that heard a bill of hers that would have required all employers to use the national E-Verify system. The committee had just voted 7-5 to send the measure to the House Agriculture Committee, with three Republicans supporting the move.

The problem, said Looper, is that the Agriculture Committee is known for killing such bills.

“Regular citizens just got hosed again by politicians up here,” Looper fumed. “I’m very disappointed by my colleagues who would put special interests before their constituents.”

E-Verify is a federal database that checks employee identification documents, such as Social Security numbers, to see if the holder is in the country legally. Currently, it’s an optional tool for employers. Looper’s bill would require all businesses to check the status of new hires, beginning on Jan. 1, 2013.

One of her fellow El Paso County legislators, though, said the Agriculture Committee was the appropriate place for the measure to go, since it has wide-ranging implications for farming communities.

“This affects all businesses, but predominantly agriculture. It needs to be heard there,” said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, who chairs the Business Committee. “I don’t have any ‘special interests.’”

He added that E-Verify “makes perfect sense,” and said the bill’s fate is not pre-determined. Looper is a member of the Agriculture Committee, he pointed out.

E-Verify has for years been a wedge between the business community and conservative activists. Farmers of all types, along with other industries, claim that E-Verify is too onerous and inaccurate to be of value, while illegal immigration foes charge that undocumented workers steal jobs and undercut the American economy.

That clash continued on Thursday. Mark Arausch, from the Colorado Farm Bureau, told the committee that Looper’s bill would be a huge burden on small farms, especially ones that rely on seasonal workers. Part of the problem, he said, is that there’s a lengthy delay if E-Verify finds a problem with a person’s legal status. While the problem is sorted out, he said, that person can’t work, which means the farm is understaffed.

“This is not the magic bullet everyone thinks it is,” he said.
Westminster resident Ben Lawrence, though, told the committee a personal story of how an illegal alien hit him with his car. The driver had five aliases, he said, and though the man was deported, Lawrence never received any help with his medical bills or other problems.

“If we don’t pass this E-Verify system, they’re all going to come here, and they’re going to hurt people,” Lawrence said, referring to foreign workers.

The chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, said he hasn’t seen Looper’s bill, but said E-Verify is “a huge issue for agriculture.”

“We’ve had E-verify bills almost every year since I’ve been here, and they always seem to die, whether the Republicans or the Democrats are in control,” Sonnenberg said.

Democrats argued during the hearing that E-Verify is unreliable and intrusive. Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, repeatedly cited a 2010 study that found E-Verify to be accurate less than half of the time it was used.
And Rep. Angela Williams, D-Denver, took a commonly held Republican view.

“I don’t think it’s the business of the state to get into the business of businesses,” said Williams.


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