Tea party, conservative groups call on Congress to reject E-Verify
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 2:57 pm
An open letter from leaders of the groups Take Back Washington, Tea Party Nation, Downsize DC, GOProud, the D.C. Tea Party and other conservative groups calls on members of Congress to reject the Legal Workforce Act, a bill sponsored by U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) that would mandate the use of the electronic identification system E-Verify by all businesses nationwide.
The letter, which identifies its signatories as “pro-freedom, limited government, and Constitutional government organizations,” lists five reasons for opposing E-Verify:
We are alarmed that E-Verify poses a threat to both the Constitution and every law-abiding citizen of this country because it:
1. Creates a de facto national I.D. System – even for citizens;
2. Violates individual civil liberties such as the right to work and free speech;
3. Mandates a costly job-killing regulatory burden that cripples small business
4. Requires employers to become enforcement agents of the federal government;
5. Encourages identify theft of law-abiding citizens
While the letter reflects fears of an overreaching federal government typical of modern conservative ideology, many of the points raised in the letter are echoed by liberal Democrats and immigrant rights activists who have consistently opposed mandatory implementation of E-Verify.
Smith’s Judiciary Committee began markup of the bill Thursday. The Huffington Post reports that at least one Republican on the committee expressed worry that mandating E-Verify would be particularly damaging to the farmers in his district:
“I just can’t abide with what we’re doing to my state in terms of the temporary need for temporary workers,” Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said. “It would devastate agriculture. … If we do not recognize the demonstrated need for foreign workers, and I’m talking about temporary foreign workers in the agriculture field, we’re kidding ourselves.”
Laws requiring E-Verify have passed in multiple states and were found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, as was penalizing employers that knowingly hired undocumented workers by revoking their business licenses. Already there have been multiple reports of immigrant workers fleeing states which have recently enacted similar enforcement laws, leading to labor shortages that confirm Lungren’s fears.
The Center for American Progress estimates in a recent report (PDF) that setting up E-Verify could cost small businesses anywhere from $1,254 to $24,422. The report also predicts that 0.5 percent of legal American workers will be mistakenly identified as undocumented workers and fired if E-Verify is implemented nationwide, a proportion that may seem relatively small but would amount to 770,000 people unjustly losing their jobs.
In regard to Immigration from the muslim nation hoping problems can be fixed in bringing migrants from these areas it adds fuel to the fire as at present a low profile helping with securing other countries as liveable and a secure way of life is the answer giving liberty to all
This is just plain insanity. Social Security has been identifying people with name and SS# discrepancies for at least 38 years that I am aware of. I was just married and had not changed my name on my SS card, and when my employer submitted tax payments with my married name, they were notified that there was a discrepancy. I had to go to my HR dept. with a copy of my driver’s license, marriage license, and SS card. They sent a letter to Social Security and the matter was resolved. And this was before e-mails and electronic databases. I had 30 days to fix the problem according to the letter, and it was taken care of in less than one week.
The argument that this will lead to identity theft is a joke, right? It is identity theft and falsified documents will be revealed through this process, and ag workers who want to come here have a legal recourse called a temporary work visa. These are bogus arguments that aid and abet in the hiring of illegal immigrants in violation of federal laws. I am a liberal, and I understand the implications of this law. It seems to me if a business cannot afford the costs listed, then the business is in serious trouble. For the HR department, it will be a matter of only a few minutes to process some paperwork/data entry. The biggest problem with this bill: putting under the oversight of an underfunded Social Security Administration, instead of the Department of Labor, which could easily use the SSA database for verification of numbers, and handle the follow up. Legally employed workers may be inconvenienced for a day or two, or even a week or two, but employers can be mandated to insure employment until such time as the verification process is completed by the employee, rather than just immediately firing someone. This complaint and those of liberals as well are designed to give cover to employers who do not want to follow our employment and immigration laws by hiring illegal immigrants instead of American citizens to do these jobs at a lawful living wage.
“E-Verify is implemented nationwide, a proportion that may seem relatively small but would amount to 770,000 people unjustly losing their jobs.” First, that’s not true, there is an opportunity to fix the problem if there is one. One is not just immediately fired. Second, E-Verify would open up 7 million jobs currently occupied by people who obviously have to respect for the country they broke into.
I’m a conservative, and I’m all for E-verify. At present our country is overrun by illegals, who, once here, seen to think its their right to use all of our free services, plus, I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of seeing and hearing Spanish everywhere, just to accommodate illegal’s rights. Its insanity. Illegals have NO American rights. They are law breakers and its past time they got treated as such. Can you think of one other country who’d welcome us, if we entered their country illegally, with open arms? Hell, no! We’d immediately be thrown in jail.
Nearly every Tea Party I know are calling on INCREASED use of E-Verify. It merely VALIDATES INFORMATION ALREADY GATHERED on new employees. Each one of their 5 points is false.
It does NOT create a National ID system, any more than we already have with the current REQUIREMENT to supply a SS Number.
Right to work is NOT affected (unless you are in this country ILLEGALLY)
The online system takes no more than 2 minutes per application.
Again, no new information is gathered, it is only validated.
“Encourages theft by ‘law-abiding citizens’??? Hardly, law-abiding citizens have no problem with it since they already provide everything required, people in this country ILLEGALLY have a problem with it.
Tea Part Nation does NOT represent the Tea Parties in this! I say this as Co-founder of the North Texas Tea Party And board member of the North Texas Council, the newly formed alliance of a dozen different Tea parties representing most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
This article is a crock. E-verify has nothing to do with right to work, free speech, or a federal ID system. The right to work is for US Citizens and we currently have a federal ID system, it is known as the Social Security System. Perhaps Nicholas Mendoza has vested axe to grind in filing this report.
More Proof that this claim of Tea Party support for this is nuts? http://www.americanindependent.com/194505/texas-tea-party-groups-call-on-perry-again-to-call-special-session-on-immigration
This crew, published ON YOUR OWN SITE, includes increased use of E-Verify as one of their demands.
