Thread: REP. LAMAR SMITH RE-INTRODUCES MANDATORY E-VERIFY BILL

REP. LAMAR SMITH RE-INTRODUCES MANDATORY E-VERIFY BILL


UPDATED:
Mon, MAR 2nd 2015 @ 1:10 pm EST

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has reintroduced his Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 1147, that would require all employers in the United States to use the E-Verify system within three years. The bill was first introduced during the 112th Session of Congress where it passed through the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Smith was joined by 12 cosponsors of the legislation.

“The Legal Workforce Act is crucial legislation that puts legal workers first and enjoys broad support with the American public," Rep Smith said in a statement. "It is also free, quick, easy-to-use and effective."

“Almost 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.

Meanwhile, seven million people are working in the United States illegally. By expanding the E-Verify system, this bill will ensure that jobs only go to legal workers.”

NumbersUSA president Roy Beck said the bill would "fulfill the promise" to keep U.S. jobs in the hands of American citizens and those legally allowed to work here.

The Legal Workforce Act would at last substantially fulfill the promise of the 1986 amnesty to deny U.S. jobs to foreign citizens who overstay their visitor visas or cross the border illegally. In so doing, historic experience suggests, millions more jobs would both be available and be improved for the American workers and legal immigrants already here who would be recruited and trained to fill them. Most of the jobs opening up for under-employed Americans would be in construction, manufacturing, hospitality and other service occupations in which millions of Americans already are seeking full-time employment.

The Legal Workforce Act would:

• Repeals I-9 System: Repeals the current paper-based I-9 system and replaces it with a completely electronic work eligibility check, bringing the process into the 21st century.
• Gradual Phase-In: Phases-in mandatory E-Verify participation for new hires in six month increments beginning on the date of enactment. Within six months of enactment, businesses having more than 10,000 employees are required to use E-Verify. Within 12 months of enactment, businesses having 500 to 9,999 employees are required to use E-Verify. Eighteen months after enactment, businesses having 20 to 499 employees must use E-Verify. And 24 months after enactment, businesses having 1 to 19 employees must use E-Verify.
• Agriculture: Requires that employees performing "agricultural labor or services" are only subject to an E-Verify check within 36 months of the date of enactment.
• States as Partners: Preempts duplicative state laws mandating E-Verify use but retains the ability of states and localities to condition business licenses on the requirement that the employer use E-Verify in good faith under federal law. In addition, the bill allows states to enforce the federal E-Verify requirement and incentives them to do so by letting them keep the fines they recover from employers who violate the law.
• Protects Against Identity Theft: The bill allows individuals to lock their Social Security number (SSN) so that it can't be used by another person to get a job. It also allows parents or legal guardians to lock the SSN of their minor child. And if a SSN shows unusual multiple use, DHS is required to lock the SSN and alert the owner that their personal information may have been compromised.
• Safe Harbor: Grants employers safe harbor from prosecution if they use the E-Verify program in good faith, and through no fault of theirs, receive an incorrect eligibility confirmation.

The cosponsors include: Reps. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), John Carter (R-Texas), Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Paul Cook (R-Calif.), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Tom Marino (R-Pa.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.).

https://www.numbersusa.com/news/rep-...ssion-congress

A bit late if Obama makes them all "legal".

Better than nothing, and when totally implemented may be OK if Obama's legalizing gets stopped I do not like the phase in. either we have it fo all employers immediately or someone will get around it in some corrupt, illegal or immoral way. Like break a company up, incorp as an agri-business.

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

Better than nothing, and when totally implemented may be OK if Obama's legalizing gets stopped I do not like the phase in. either we have it fo all employers immediately or someone will get around it in some corrupt, illegal or immoral way. Like break a company up, incorp as an agri-business.

I think the phase-in is because if every company had to start at the same time it would overwhelm the system and it would crash. Just a guess.

Making E-Verify mandatory seems like a no-brainer but then I'm not a politician. To vote for this bill is a vote for American workers.

They should have done this years ago.

House panel OKs mandatory E-Verify over farmer opposition

By Philip Brasher
Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2015 - The House Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would force employers to use the E-Verify system to ensure their workers can legally work in the Untied States, a requirement that could snag farmworkers across the country.

Democrats argued that the requirement would devastate agricultural employers who heavily rely on illegal immigrants for labor, but the panel approved the measure 20-13.

The bill (HR 1147) is the first of a series of immigration enforcement measures that House Republicans are planning to move. Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., said that the committee would consider a separate agricultural guestworker bill “as soon as possible.”

“The American people are demanding immigration enforcement prior to any legal immigration reforms,” Goodlatte told the committee today.

Agribusiness groups strenuously object to the E-Verify requirement unless Congress assures them a future flow of workers through an expanded guestworker program.

Immigration legislation has little chance of passing this Congress because of the sharp divisions on policy between Republicans and Democrats, but the Agriculture Workforce Coalition still made clear that it is opposed to moving the E-Verify bill without the guestworker program to go with it.

"Imposing mandatory E-verify without fixing our country's broken immigration system will sound the death knell for thousands of farming operations across the country,' the coalition said ahead of the committee vote.

“As we have repeatedly stated, agriculture faces unprecedented demographic challenges and relies heavily on foreign-born workers. Continued inaction by Congress in the fact of these realities will mean more fields lying fallow, more farmers losing their livelihoods and fewer of the foods we eat being grown in America.”

Committee seized on agriculture's concerns to fight the bill. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said the E-Verify requirement would be so devastating to farms that it would force Americans to rely on imported produce.

Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the error rate in the existing E-Verify is large enough, 0.3 percent, that hundreds of thousands of employees could be at risk of losing their jobs unfairly.

Democrats argue that Congress should pass a comprehensive immigration bill that provides undocumented workers with a path to legal status.
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http://www.agri-pulse.com/Committee-...l-03032015.asp