Mandatory E-Verify Would Kill Jobs & Burden Businesses
by Hugh Holub on Jul. 04, 2011, under immigration law reform, politicsFrom America’sVoice.org:
Some “Jobs” Bill: Mandatory E-Verify Would Kill Jobs & Burden Businesses
Smith-Grassley Plan Will Expand Government Red Tape, Threaten Jobs of Legal Americans
Washington – Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) claimed that his mandatory E-Verify legislation “is not an immigration bill, it’s a jobs bill.” Judged through this lens, mandatory E-Verify is as much of a failure on economic measures and job creation terms as it is on immigration policy, as it would kill American jobs while burdening businesses with new red tape and costs.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, “Some jobs bill. Mandatory E-Verify would destroy American jobs, pile burdensome and costly new requirements on small businesses, and decimate the ag industry, doing for the entire nation what Georgia farms are already experiencing. When Lamar Smith calls this a jobs bill, perhaps he’s referring to the new HR departments that small businesses will need to create in order to deal with the unfunded mandates that will soon be forced upon them. He’s certainly not referring to the 770,000 legal Americans who will lose their jobs due to database errors, and the millions more who will have to haggle with government bureaucrats to correct their records—just to be able to work.”
Here are three ways mandatory E-Verify will hurt job creation and our economy.
- Instead of creating jobs for Americans, this plan would cost Americans their jobs. Mandatory E-Verify would be a job-killer for 770,000 Americans and force millions more to spend time and money fighting with a government bureaucracy just to be able to work. Given the E-Verify system’s current error rate and the average rate of workers hired in the U.S., up to 3.6 million authorized workers would be forced to get their records corrected by a government agency or risk losing their jobs every year. To keep their jobs, they would be forced to navigate the Social Security Administration — which is already so overburdened that it turned away 3.3 million visitors to its offices in 2010 – and go through a bureaucratic process the Government Accounting Office has described as “formidable.”
- An “implementation tax” for small businesses, with expanded red tape and unfunded mandates. Mandatory E-Verify would cost small businesses an estimated $2.6 billion to implement. That’s $2.6 billion small businesses have to spend on government regulation, not job creation. Remarkably, these costs would be in exchange for a system that identifies unauthorized workers only 46% of the time. Adding onto these costs are the burdens and bureaucracies that would arise when a program currently used by only 4% of employers – and only 2% of small businesses – needs to scale up to encompass every employer in the nation within three years.
- Killing American agriculture – and American jobs in the process. Mandatory E-Verify would do for the country what Georgia growers are currently experiencing due to that state’s E-Verify law. Said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Grower’s Association, “Fruits and vegetables in Georgia were worth $1.1 billion. We could see a $200 (million) to $250 million loss, potentially. The consumer may or may not see a difference in price.” Destroying American agriculture would also kill a range of associated jobs that rely on farm production. In fact, each American agriculture job generates three additional jobs upstream or downstream. Is the GOP jobs program really about sending unemployed factory workers to the fields?
Concluded Sharry, “For businesses, mandatory E-Verify would be about as convenient as going to the DMV on a Saturday morning, and as welcome to their bottom line as an IRS tax collector on April 15th. And it would be even worse for American workers, as it will add new bureaucratic hurdles and cost hundreds of thousands their jobs due to government mistakes. The more people learn about forced E-Verify, the more problems people have with this job killing proposal.”
America’s Voice Education Fund — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.
###
From National Foundation for American Policy:
New Research: Making E-Verify Mandatory Will Be Ineffective in Reducing Illegal Immigration; Will Burden Employers, Workers
Analysis Recommends House Bill Should Sunset in 3 Years Unless Proven Effective
Arlington, Va. – H.R. 2164, the Legal Workforce Act, would make the American workplace less free, ensnare U.S. workers in government agency errors, expand the size and role of government and is likely to be ineffective in reducing the illegal immigration population in the United States, according to a new analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, an Arlington, Va.-based policy research group.
E-Verify is an electronic employment verification system that employers can use to determine if a new hire (or current employee) is eligible to work in the United States. H.R. 2164 would require all employers to use the system within two years or face large fines or possible criminal prosecution. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to consider the bill as early as this month.
The report can be found on the NFAP website at www.nfap.com.
Stuart Anderson, NFAP’s executive director and the author of the study, said, “It appears only because the subject is immigration are lawmakers so willing to dramatically expand the role of government based on questionable promises and scant evidence that the legislation would achieve its stated objectives.” Anderson served as head of policy and counselor to the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from August 2001 to January 2003, and before that was staff director of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee.
H.R. 2164 represents a significant expansion of federal government power over U.S. employers and workers, the study found. In essence, the bill would require all new hires in America to gain approval from federal authorities to work for a new employer. Government data indicate more than 160,000 people a year, about 1 million over 6 years, will be forced to go to a federal government office or otherwise correct errors to work in America, although some estimates are much higher.
This analysis shows the following key issues with H.R. 2164 and its provisions to make E-Verify mandatory:
- E-Verify may be “free” to use but it’s costly to administer for companies, requiring a host of procedures and trained personnel for when new hires or employees experience problems with government databases. Filing an individual or corporate income tax return is free but it entails considerable compliance costs. Bloomberg estimates mandatory E-Verify would cost U.S. employers $2.7 billion a year to comply with the system, disproportionately affecting small businesses.
- Since most crop workers are working in the United States without legal status, an E-Verify system that seeks to remove such migrants from the labor force could leave many growers with insufficient labor to harvest crops, threatening many additional U.S.-based jobs in food production.
- Elected officeholders voting for H.R. 2164 would expose business owners to the genuine risk of losing their livelihoods because of a failure to follow government-mandated procedures. The significant increases in fines and requirements in H.R. 2164 could put small companies out of business, whether or not they have hired illegal immigrants, according to immigration attorneys.
- The record to date of E-Verify is one of ineffectiveness, with about half of illegal immigrants submitted to E-Verify shown incorrectly to be authorized to work by the system. This ineffectiveness will likely lead to calls for a national ID card or other biometric system to plug the perceived holes in E-Verify.
- H.R. 2164 will lead to an increase in government workers. Examining a bill in 2008 to make E-Verify mandatory, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated mandating E-Verify nationwide would increase federal spending by approximately $6 billion from 2009 to 2013 and by about $12 billion from 2009 to 2018. The CBO estimated the 2008 bill would lead to a decline of $17 billion in tax revenue over 10 years, caused primarily by pushing a number of illegal immigrants into the underground economy.
- Concerns about federalism are shunned aside in the bill, as the bill dictates the use of E-Verify for all new and existing employees in all states and even in local governments within 6 months of the bill’s enactment.
- Government data show many employers pre-screen applicants through E-Verify and do not offer them jobs, without providing individuals an opportunity to correct possible errors in government databases, a problem that will be worsened if E-Verify is made mandatory nationwide.
- H.R. 2164 would represent a massive expansion of E-Verify from approximately 250,000 employers today to over 5 million nationwide, including to many large states that do not now mandate E-Verify for all private employers, including California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois.
Despite the new burdens on both employers and potential employees, there is little evidence H.R. 2164 will produce a significant reduction in America’s illegal immigration population, the study found. Previous “enforcement only” measures in 1986, 1996, and in recent years have been followed by increases, not decreases, in illegal immigration. If Congressional supporters sincerely believe making use of E-Verify mandatory for all employers will be effective, then Congress should sunset H.R. 2164’s provisions within 3 years of enactment if E-Verify has not shown to reduce by half the illegal immigrant population in the United States. That would show supporters of E-Verify are not simply hoisting another mandate on employers and workers but are instead demonstrating the courage of their convictions.
About the National Foundation for American Policy
Established in the Fall 2003, the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia focusing on trade, immigration and related issues. The Advisory Board members include Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, former U.S. Senator and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and other prominent individuals. Over the past 24 months, NFAP’s research has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media outlets. The organization’s reports can be found at www.nfap.com.
July 4th, 2011 on 1:57 pm
Protect the seasonal agricultural workers. Send them home at the end of the picking season. They will come back next year.
Everybody else gets the E Verify. Screw the business’s who dont comply.
July 4th, 2011 on 2:07 pm
Well, the cost of E-verify would certainly be more desirable than the cost of the fines imposed and possible loss of license to do business at all by hiring illegal aliens. The Ag business can hire recently released incarcerated individuals who would be struggling to find work. We do have a lot of unemployment in our country right now…is that not right?? So the arguments in this article are mute. We are trying to get rid of the burden of illegal aliens….don’t you get it? We can’t afford them anymore. They have broken the welfare bank and taken jobs that legal citizens need desparately. Don’t tell me they only do jobs that Americans won’t do!! That is utter nonsense!. We always managed to do these jobs long before we had the problem of so many illegal aliens infiltrating our country. We can certainly do these jobs again if given a chance. Secure the border and deport the illegal aliens and the anchor babies, too. That’s what the majority of Americans want. This is not a race issue, as African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, etc., who are legal, we all want the same thing….we welcome immigration, but do it legally.
July 4th, 2011 on 3:43 pm
THE ONLY JOBS THE E-VERFY KILLS ARE PROSTITUTION,DOCUMENT FORGERY,HUMAN SMUGGLING,COCAINE TRAFFICKING…
July 4th, 2011 on 5:57 pm
By there own words and arguments (published above) these two gentlemen are confessed felons who knowingly and repeatedly and customarily use and profit from illegal labor in violation of all law and decency. Their businesses should be immediately audited to collect further evidence and they should be fined and prosecuted to the limit of the law. Their statements above should and can be entered into evidence as clear proof of their guilty knowledge.
July 4th, 2011 on 6:04 pm
When is Mr. Lamar Smith going to talk against the shipping of American jobs to other countries? When is he going to stop the corporations from replacing American workers with foreign workers? When is going to talk against the budget cuts that are causing the firing of hundreds of thousands of teachers and government workers? Mr. Lamar and his gang of bandits are the real job killers.July 4th, 2011 on 8:29 pm
THE CONSEQUENCES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATIONThe illegal immigration plague is not going to fade away under current political parties. Liberals who have infested the Democratic Party are looking for millions of votes, whether legal or–ILLEGAL? The Republicans fare no better in this overwhelming problem, as the elitists and corporate hugger’s in the party, have over previous decades made fortunes from the uncountable numbers of illegal aliens that have arrived here by plane, ship or across the porous borders. Under the Obama’s rule in one hand, he seems to be cracking down on illegal immigration, but by the other hand there are orders out there just to apprehend dangerous criminal aliens. THIS IS WAR THAT IS TEARING AMERICA APART AND IT’S BECOMING EVEN WORSE EVERYDAY. The first immigration amnesty of 1986 was a complete failure as it was never enforced and millions turned up here, to take advantage of it, by using forged documents.The so-called Dream Act through has its benefits, cannot be passed as once the students attain the special privilege of citizenship, can begin partitioning for family members. At the beginning there would be a limited stream of family members able to come here. But in due course, the trickle of the family circle would turn into a deluge. This sponsorship of family members would eventually explode in to a CHAIN MIGRATION AVALANCHE. The biggest consequences would be the sponsorship issue, as ultimately hundreds of thousands or even millions will not be supported by the original sponsor and they will have to apply, for SSI or other federal benefits to survive. This is what happened with the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli immigration bill, as the pushers of enactment never thought of the monetary penalty of CHAIN MIGRATION.These activists who are demanding a referendum on the Dream Act, indicating they have 130.000 signatures, cannot even compete with two thirds or even more of the population of America who see this as another mass Amnesty, with CHAIN MIGRATION.As unpleasant as it is, millions must be removed from this country by either force or self-deportation called Attrition by enforcement. This can only be achieved by mandating the two controversial tools; one being “E-Verify or the Secure Communities” laws. It is the TEA PARTY and only the TEA PARTY will enforce the 1986 immigration law, that it is not “broken” as the leftist press keeps repeating. South Carolina found a chink in the armor of the Liberal progressives, Democrats that are creating a new police unit to enforce a law that would make it a felony to manufacture fake identification for illegal immigrants. This one far-reaching provision that would penalize people, who use a forged ID to get a job, or for that matter punishment for using other people’s credit for criminal enterprises; 15 years in jail and up to $250,000 in fines.THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS REALIZING THEY CANNOT COMPLY WITH GEORGIA, ALABAMA IMMIGRATION POLICING LAWS, ARE FLEEING TOWARDS SUCH UNENFORCED STATES AS THE SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA, NEVADA AND TEXAS OR ANYWHERE IN THE ILLEGAL ALIEN GUIDEBOOK, STILL OPEN FOR OCCUPATION? AS MORE STATES RECOGNIZE THEY ARE SAVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS BY ENACTING HARSH LAWS AS ARIZONA, COMFORTABLE LOCATIONS WITHOUT HARSH LAWS WILL BECOME THE DESTINATION.Americans should not hesitate and demand of the TEA PARTY leadership that already knows of the costs of illegal immigration, which continues and continues, with no real help from the feds to reduce it. For true information about costs, sources and statistics go to (FAIRS) Federation of American Immigration Reform website. To learn more about the corruption inside both parties, you find it at “Judicial Watch” website. To find out whose pandering to illegal immigrants in both parties and to acquaint yourselves with the policy makers, who have American citizens and legal residents interests go to “NumbersUSA” website. There are thousands of branches of the TEA PARTY and a national headquarters, so join them now. It’s really our last chance to take America back from the financial decay.You should also introduce yourself as a voter to the people who run this devastated country, at the Senate phone switchboard—202-224–3121/ House—202-225–3121 and tell them it’s time to produce results. To remove the stigma of instant citizenship for the babies of illegal aliens, that is by far the most expensive dollar figure from taxpayer’s pockets. Our tax dollars go to supporting agriculture that send their sick and injured to local hospitals for treatment, leaving without paying the bills that eventually is picked up by taxpayers. Same with the farm illegal workers children, that by law we must educate and pay the never ending bills? Our schools are crammed to capacity, full of the children of illegal migrants and over stay immigrants, the health system slowly falling apart as more hospitals start failing from families to be treated; uninsured with many of these institutions unable to survive.Then we have the US penal system choking with illegal alien criminals, which is yet another tax hike for the American population. All these financial problems are national, and the only way to prevent another mass amnesty, cut off all welfare and money payments and arrest those responsible for Sanctuary cities and towns and stop any access to immigration reform including volume Chain Migration through a clandestine Dream Act is by voting for more TEA PARTY candidates. There is so much fraud through working visa applications, in collusion with incorrigible immigration attorneys, corporations and middle men who forge documents to bring in foreign labor. The government agencies are also corrupt with taxpayer’s money to by favors from open border lobbyists. It is every prudent and patriotic Americans stringent responsibility to fight back against the terrible corruption for profit and power and against the illegal immigration invasion.As an addendum I have no problem with people who are processed and await their turn, as hundreds of thousands do. Special visas should expedite highly technological and professional people into a country that welcomes them. But just entering America should be strictly controlled with a felony punishment; not a slap on the hand. This must be Non-Persona-Grata for every other person, especially those who have to be supported by taxpayers, which is the majority. Corporations should be punished for bringing into this country people on the bottom skill level, as they too might end up in the bread line. Stealthily through prior administrations, millions enter America annually without the knowledge of the people to work in different industries, at reduced wages.Those of us who want our vote to count in the 2012 presidential election, must have oversight against illegal aliens using the election process, to re-elect the same old, tired men and women, who interests is to keep the illegal alien invaders still stealing from our sovereign nation. IT’S AN UGLY BATTLE AND WE MUST WIN IT, FOR OUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN’S FUTURE.
July 5th, 2011 on 12:21 am
Please use paragraphs!
July 5th, 2011 on 10:31 pm
Parsed for the ease of your consumption:
THE CONSEQUENCES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The illegal immigration plague is not going to fade away under current political parties. Liberals who have infested the Democratic Party are looking for millions of votes, whether legal or–ILLEGAL?
The Republicans fare no better in this overwhelming problem, as the elitists and corporate hugger’s in the party, have over previous decades made fortunes from the uncountable numbers of illegal aliens that have arrived here by plane, ship or across the porous borders.
Under the Obama’s rule in one hand, he seems to be cracking down on illegal immigration, but by the other hand there are orders out there just to apprehend dangerous criminal aliens.
THIS IS WAR THAT IS TEARING AMERICA APART AND IT’S BECOMING EVEN WORSE EVERYDAY.
The first immigration amnesty of 1986 was a complete failure as it was never enforced and millions turned up here, to take advantage of it, by using forged documents.The so-called Dream Act through has its benefits, cannot be passed as once the students attain the special privilege of citizenship, can begin partitioning for family members.
At the beginning there would be a limited stream of family members able to come here. But in due course, the trickle of the family circle would turn into a deluge. This sponsorship of family members would eventually explode in to a CHAIN MIGRATION AVALANCHE.
The biggest consequences would be the sponsorship issue, as ultimately hundreds of thousands or even millions will not be supported by the original sponsor and they will have to apply, for SSI or other federal benefits to survive. This is what happened with the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli immigration bill, as the pushers of enactment never thought of the monetary penalty of CHAIN MIGRATION.
These activists who are demanding a referendum on the Dream Act, indicating they have 130.000 signatures, cannot even compete with two thirds or even more of the population of America who see this as another mass Amnesty, with CHAIN MIGRATION.
As unpleasant as it is, millions must be removed from this country by either force or self-deportation called Attrition by enforcement. This can only be achieved by mandating the two controversial tools; one being “E-Verify or the Secure Communities” laws.
It is the TEA PARTY and only the TEA PARTY will enforce the 1986 immigration law, that it is not “broken” as the leftist press keeps repeating. South Carolina found a chink in the armor of the Liberal progressives, Democrats that are creating a new police unit to enforce a law that would make it a felony to manufacture fake identification for illegal immigrants.
This one far-reaching provision that would penalize people, who use a forged ID to get a job, or for that matter punishment for using other people’s credit for criminal enterprises; 15 years in jail and up to $250,000 in fines.
THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS REALIZING THEY CANNOT COMPLY WITH GEORGIA, ALABAMA IMMIGRATION POLICING LAWS, ARE FLEEING TOWARDS SUCH UNENFORCED STATES AS THE SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA, NEVADA AND TEXAS OR ANYWHERE IN THE ILLEGAL ALIEN GUIDEBOOK, STILL OPEN FOR OCCUPATION? AS MORE STATES RECOGNIZE THEY ARE SAVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS BY ENACTING HARSH LAWS AS ARIZONA, COMFORTABLE LOCATIONS WITHOUT HARSH LAWS WILL BECOME THE DESTINATION.
Americans should not hesitate and demand of the TEA PARTY leadership that already knows of the costs of illegal immigration, which continues and continues, with no real help from the feds to reduce it.
For true information about costs, sources and statistics go to (FAIRS) Federation of American Immigration Reform website. To learn more about the corruption inside both parties, you find it at “Judicial Watch” website.
To find out whose pandering to illegal immigrants in both parties and to acquaint yourselves with the policy makers, who have American citizens and legal residents interests go to “NumbersUSA” website. There are thousands of branches of the TEA PARTY and a national headquarters, so join them now. It’s really our last chance to take America back from the financial decay.
You should also introduce yourself as a voter to the people who run this devastated country, at the Senate phone switchboard—202-224–3121/ House—202-225–3121 and tell them it’s time to produce results.
To remove the stigma of instant citizenship for the babies of illegal aliens, that is by far the most expensive dollar figure from taxpayer’s pockets. Our tax dollars go to supporting agriculture that send their sick and injured to local hospitals for treatment, leaving without paying the bills that eventually is picked up by taxpayers.
Same with the farm illegal workers children, that by law we must educate and pay the never ending bills? Our schools are crammed to capacity, full of the children of illegal migrants and over stay immigrants, the health system slowly falling apart as more hospitals start failing from families to be treated; uninsured with many of these institutions unable to survive.
Then we have the US penal system choking with illegal alien criminals, which is yet another tax hike for the American population. All these financial problems are national, and the only way to prevent another mass amnesty, cut off all welfare and money payments and arrest those responsible for Sanctuary cities and towns and stop any access to immigration reform including volume Chain Migration through a clandestine Dream Act is by voting for more TEA PARTY candidates.
There is so much fraud through working visa applications, in collusion with incorrigible immigration attorneys, corporations and middle men who forge documents to bring in foreign labor. The government agencies are also corrupt with taxpayer’s money to by favors from open border lobbyists. It is every prudent and patriotic Americans stringent responsibility to fight back against the terrible corruption for profit and power and against the illegal immigration invasion.
As an addendum I have no problem with people who are processed and await their turn, as hundreds of thousands do.
Special visas should expedite highly technological and professional people into a country that welcomes them. But just entering America should be strictly controlled with a felony punishment; not a slap on the hand.
This must be Non-Persona-Grata for every other person, especially those who have to be supported by taxpayers, which is the majority.
Corporations should be punished for bringing into this country people on the bottom skill level, as they too might end up in the bread line.
Stealthily through prior administrations, millions enter America annually without the knowledge of the people to work in different industries, at reduced wages.Those of us who want our vote to count in the 2012 presidential election, must have oversight against illegal aliens using the election process, to re-elect the same old, tired men and women, who interests is to keep the illegal alien invaders still stealing from our sovereign nation.
IT’S AN UGLY BATTLE AND WE MUST WIN IT, FOR OUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN’S FUTURE.
July 8th, 2011 on 8:25 pm
Well spoken my friend
July 8th, 2011 on 11:45 pm
Ditto on that too. Keep the intelligent comments coming.
July 5th, 2011 on 10:18 pm
Mandatory e-Verify will only hurt businesses who are either unprepared, OR CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. If employers want foreign workers, then have them lobby Congress for additional agricultural worker visa quotas. Frankly, since they are hurting the economy in many ways (Arabs call this the ‘death of a thousand cuts’) I know for a fact that IF ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS LOSE CROPS & MONEY BY CHOOSING ILLEGAL LABOR, THE DEMISE OF THESE ‘BUSINESSES’ (AKA CRIME SYNDICATES) WILL BE BETTER OVERALL FOR U.S.