Thread: E-Verify works, so, of course, let's not use it

E-Verify works, so, of course, let's not use it
John Kass
June 5, 2009

With billions of your federal tax dollars gushing forth from Washington -- as part of President Barack Obama's stimulus bill to put Americans back to work -- wouldn't it be nice if someone invented a special magic faucet?

A magic faucet to compel those federal contractors doing all the hiring with all that federal money to make certain the jobs go to people who are legally entitled to work in the United States.

Is that kind of magic too much for a beleaguered taxpayer to expect? Actually, the faucet has already been invented.

It's called E-Verify. And it works.



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E-Verify is an Internet-based screening system allowing prospective employers to quickly and cheaply determine a job applicant's legal status.

Currently a voluntary program, E-Verify combines Social Security identification with other federal databases to determine if the applicant is actually the person asking for the job, and not someone who passed away 50 years ago.

E-Verify has been studied and studied again and again, and works perfectly fine as a purely voluntary program. But making it a federal mandate frightens special interests, so it languishes in legislative purgatory.

The latest delay occurred Wednesday, in a quiet notice sent without fanfare by U.S. Citizen- ship and Immigration Services to federal contractors. The federal agency said E-Verify wouldn't be up and running to screen those federal contract jobs until at least Sept. 8.

And it's a good bet that just before Sept. 8 rolls around, it will be delayed some more.

Last year, former President George W. Bush issued an executive order mandating that E-Verify be used in federal contracts. That was delayed. Later, Congress toyed with including it in Obama's gazillion-dollar federal jobs stimulus package.

But it was dropped. Why?

"There are powerful lobbies lined up against this, and together they make some of the strangest bedfellows in the world," said Neville Cramer, a former top federal Immigration official who helped develop the earliest incarnation of E-Verify years ago.

"They are deathly afraid of this system being used because it works," Cramer said in a telephone interview.

E-Verify works so well that it's already been credited with a miracle: bringing Republicans and Democrats together.

Republicans in their party's corporate wing support businesses that want unfettered access to cheap labor. Democrats in their party's recruitment wing see a future bright with the votes of Mexican families crossing the border illegally to find jobs and eventually becoming clients of government programs.

But because E-Verify works, politicians figure there's no real rush to actually use the darn thing. If it didn't work, they'd demand its implementation, like almost every other government program.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes a federal mandate for E-Verify. It says its opposition is based on constitutional grounds, not because of Immigration. But these things intersect, and in December, the chamber filed a federal lawsuit to stop Bush's executive order.

"We have some businesses who use it voluntarily, and others who find it to be a pain in the butt," said Randy Johnson, vice president of the Washington-based chamber. "We support the extension of E-Verify as a voluntary pilot program."

Before immigrant groups shriek that I'm some kind of immigrantphobe for supporting E-Verify, think again. As the son of immigrants, I'm genetically prohibited from fearing myself.

But this isn't about Immigration, as much as it is about American jobs, about making sure that taxpayer money is used properly. Otherwise, we're participating in a lie, and lies breed cynicism and ugliness, in case you haven't observed Chicago politics lately. What is required is clarity.

There doesn't seem to be anything more clear than the expectation that government and busi- ness follow the law when our taxes are gushing out of the federal spigot.

"E-Verify is crucial because it gets to the source of the problem," said Cramer, who began his career as a border patrol agent in Eagle Pass, Texas, and who retired in 2002 to consult on Immigration issues. "You can put 50,000 Immigration agents on the borders and you could build a wall around the whole United States, but if there's a job waiting for them, they're coming. If you don't shut off the valve, they're coming."

Despite all their speeches about fiscal responsibility, our bipartisan politicians in Washington have always found it easy to open the federal money valve.

But when it comes to guaranteeing that your federal jobs stimulus money goes to those who legally deserve it, the politicians seem incapable of turning the valve the other way.

www.chicagotribune.com

Take Action
Ask Your Senators for Long-Term Extension of E-Verify
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-158342.html

STOPPING AMNESTY WOULD EQUAL AN AMERICAN FIRST HIRE BILL WITH E-VERIFY

All groups fighting: against amnesty, for a clarification of 14th Amendment, and to close the border; if you will take get one minute to think about the end prize. The end prize is jobs. AMERICAN JOBS HAVE NO SAFEGUARD FOR AMERICAN TO BE HIRED FIRST INSTEAD OF IMMIGRANTS.

While Americans are struggling to find a job; or feeling the threat of being displaced by a foreign worker Congress is wanting to only extend E-Verify.

So let's look at what is going on here.

Can Americans workers be displaced any further? Yes, they are being replaced and displaced. Just go and asked your local State Unemployment Office if they are processing I-9 for local businesses. What are I-9s? What is the ratio of issued I-9 in a state versus the hiring of Americans?

The I-9 is a form - Department of Justice: Immigration and Naturalization Service produced. The I-9 requires the employer to obtain information such as proof of legal status by using a social security card, green card, or visa. Some companies make copies of this proof used for I-9 form. But the I-9 is not sent to be verified by any government agency, they are just filed. ICE may be the only agency that will inquiry into the file of I-9s if ever needed in a immigration raid. Once again the I-9 is not sent to be verified by any government agency. So once again, the I-9 is filed and most likely will not be touched any government agency ever. (How long has ICE been around? Since after 2001!)

So first problem is the paper fakes; just looking authentic. How are employers to discern between fake and legitimate documents. They cannot. Exactly, an employer's excuse for hiring illegals is "we are not document experts". Next, the employer's says, "we did not want to be sued for racial discrimination" so we just collect the I-9 information and do not question anyone. These employers are free to hire illegal immigrants with no safety net for the American Workers.

Why is there NOT a safety net for the American Workers? There should have been with the I-9. But when the I-9 was put in place after the 1986 as an amnesty tool to fool Americans into thinking businesses were hiring legal immigrants. Employers only have had to file the useless I-9 paper in a file cabinet with NO VERIFYING BY ANYONE. So where is the safe guard for all of America Jobs?

Congress Stop Ignoring the American Workers; Pass an AMERICAN FIRST HIRE LAW. This law could make sure massive legal immigrants and illegals aren't displacing American workers.

Why isn't there a cap on I-9s for the average American Workers?

Please Call your Congress this week and demand an "American First Hire Bill" that would give American Workers jobs first over all immigrants.

Elected officials are no better than the American People they represent and serve.

Related Post:
ACTION:Ask Your Senators for Long-Term Extension of E-Verify
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-906714.html#906714

go into a store load up a cart full of food, then ask a managerif they e varify. If not walk out.

It doesn't work when people steal identities

My wife was talking to a Mexican who clean the gym she works out at (24 Hour Fitness). Of course this fellow only spoke Spanish. Well for the past 3 weeks he just vanished off the face of the earth. So my wife ask on one the other Mexican custodians where he went and she was told INS picked him up and he was in jail waiting on deportation. She said this was his 3rd time to be deported and he always comes back and gets more fake paperwork so he can work somewhere else.

If 24 Hour Fitness used E-Verify, this would not continue. I am just confused as to how our government can not make this a must for every business.