Thread: The real story about E-Verify

The real story about E-Verify
By MATT RAMSEY - Special to The Telegraph
Friday, Feb. 25, 2011

I am very concerned about the lack of balance in the “news storyâ€

I believe this is the article he's referring too:

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011
Immigration bill worries many in Georgia agribusiness
By LINDA S. MORRIS and MAGGIE LEE - Telegraph staff

Donald Chase and his father farm 1,600 acres in Macon County, and if proposed immigration rules being considered by Georgia lawmakers go into effect, Chase and lot of farmers are worried it will cost them more than time and money.

Some farmers say it could put them out of business.


GRANT BLANKENSHIP/THE TELEGRAPH Macon , GA 02/16/11 Macon County farmer Donald Chase in a field of winter rye near Pine Level Road in Macon County. Chase said that when he hires a Latin American worker he has no choice to but to assume that the paperwork they present him for legal employment is legitimate. The idea that the General Assembly would make employers like him more responsible doesn't please him, either. "As a farmer, I don't want to be a police for the immigration service," he said.

While the immigration rules intended to stem undocumented workers would affect many private employers, agriculture is the state’s largest industry -- valued at more than $11.3 billion in 2009 -- and would be one of the hardest hit.

At the heart of House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 40, as originally written, is that employers will be required to use E-Verify -- a federal online employment verification program -- to confirm the legal status of employees to work in this country. It would not apply to farmers who use the H-2A program, sometimes referred to as the federal guest worker program, which allows farmers to fill temporary jobs with non-U.S. citizen workers.

E-Verify, authorized in 1996, is administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service and compares information from an employee’s Form I-9 -- Employment Eligibility Verification -- to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility.

Although currently a voluntary program in most states, E-Verify is mandatory for employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-Verify clause.

If undocumented workers are knowingly employed, employers could be fined or serve time in jail.

“The whole idea is it puts the burden on us as employers to police the whole system when this is a federal issue,â€

As a farmer, I don't want to be a police for the immigration service," he said.

As a farmer, you don't want to pay minimum wage, health benefits, unemployment and taxes.

I continue to be mystified by the suggestion that House Bill 87 will impact the agriculture industry’s access to a legal workforce. The H2A visa is a system set up by the federal government so farmers can lawfully access an unlimited number of foreign workers to come help on our farms. According to The Telegraph’s story, the Georgia Peach Council has been using it for several years.

The farmers don't want the H2A visa system. They want the cheap illegal invader slave labor they can get at rock bottom prices! That's exactly what this is about and all their excuses and stonewalling isn't going to change that! That's why they don't want E-Verify or anything else to do with verifying their labor. THEY WANT ILLEGAL LABOR!

Problem is, while they get to pad their profits, the rest of American has to deal with the huge social costs attributed to illegal invaders!

It's that simple!