Thread: SIX FLAWS IN H.R. 2164

SIX FLAWS IN H.R. 2164, THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT

Congressman Lou Barletta, PA-11


1. It stabs Arizona in the back immediately after Arizona won its victory in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law that Arizona passed in 2007 (which suspends business licenses of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized aliens and, which has been enforced vigorously), would be preempted under the Legal Workforce Act (sec. (6), p. 50).


2. It is an affront to states’ rights.
The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of cooperative enforcement, with the states and the federal government working together to restore the rule of law in immigration. Yet this bill snatches defeat from the jaws of victory and tells the states that they can no longer take meaningful actions to go after employers who knowingly hire unauthorized aliens. Alabama adopted Arizona’s approach just two weeks after the Supreme Court victory. Dozens of other states are likely to follow in 2012 when the state legislatures go back into session. If the Legal Workforce Act passes, Congress will tie the states’ hands, forcing them to continue paying about $80 billion a year in fiscal costs caused by illegal immigration.


3. The Legal Workforce Act will be another federal law that goes unenforced.
The federal government has been unwilling to aggressively enforce immigration laws in the workplace, and this law will be no exception. There is zero likelihood that the current administration will go after employers who fail to use E-Verify or who knowingly help their employees circumvent the system (which is very easy to do by using a U.S. citizen’s stolen name and Social Security number). In contrast, states like Arizona have been very effective in enforcing their own laws. In Arizona, dozens of worksite raids have occurred. That is why the number of illegal aliens in Arizona dropped 16 percent between 2008 and 2010 — more than double the national average (of 7 percent).


4. The Legal Workforce Act gives a “workplace amnestyâ€

I believe that No. 6 on the above list is the main reason that this bill is being pushed for so hard. Now that the states are acting and the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of that, they want to put a stop to it ASAP so they can go back to the lack of enforcement by the federal government.