[BretLudwig]

E-Verify Is Working. Thats Why Its Threatened In Courts And
Congress.

By Marcus Epstein

"As immigration has become a hot topic in the last few years,
immigration reform patriots have had an enormous amount of success in
blocking bad legislation. In addition to defeating two "comprehensive
immigration reform" bills, weve also defeated the DREAM Act and AgJobs
on multiple occasions.

But stopping amnesty is only the first step. We also need to get all the
illegals out of the country (to say nothing of stopping legal
immigration). Though no national legislation has been passed, there has
been some progress in cracking down and preventing employers from hiring
illegal aliens through E-Verify€”the internet-based system that allows
employers to determine whether an employee is legal within seconds.

The core of illegal aliens come to this country for jobs, so if you cut
off the jobs, they will leave. This is the cornerstone to the
"attrition"
strategy supported by most of the patriotic immigration reform movement.

Laws banning the employment of illegal aliens have been on the books for
over twenty years. But they had barely been enforced until very recently.
Part of the problem has been intentional neglect on the part of the
federal government (G.W. Bush, President). But here are legitimate
logistical difficulties in stopping illegal immigration.

Illegal aliens can easily acquire fake IDs. It is up to the employers to
discern whether or not the IDs are legitimate. To make matters worse, the
Immigration Reform and Control Act, which made it illegal to hire illegal
aliens, also created anti-discrimination laws that banned€”among other
things€”"Document abuse discrimination". Employers can now be sued for
overly scrutinizing the documents of Hispanics.

E-verify takes care of these problems by immediately checking if the
Social Security numbers supplied by an employee or applicant.

Some libertarians will object to this on privacy grounds. But it is much
less invasive than any other alternative. The Social Security numbers are
only matched through the E-verify system and will not be shared with any
other federal agency or other third party. Furthermore, this will obviate
the perceived need by many for a National ID Card.

E-Verify was started in 1997. But it is only recent years that it has
actually been implemented on a large scale. Arizona, South Carolina,
Mississippi, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Carolina,
Rhode
Island, and Utah have all passed legislation requiring some or all
businesses to use it. Heath Shulers SAVE Act, currently perhaps the
most viable immigration restriction act, would mandate the program
nationwide. In the pigs flying category: President Bush recently signed
an
executive order requiring all federal contractors to use the system.

Arizona has the most stringent laws, under which all employers are
required to use the system. Before the law even went in effect, there
were
headlines like "Crackdown has illegal immigrants leaving Arizona." [The
Arizona Republic, December 19, 2007]. The law has been in effect since
March. All sides admit that there has been a dramatic exodus of illegals
out of the state. A recent PBS report interviewed State Rep Russell
Pearce
who authored the law, and various businesses and local immigrants. Here
are
some highlights:

Pearce: I have not seen any actual caravans, but we've been told they're
leaving by the droves. We've seen businesses shut down. We've seen
businesses that cater to illegal aliens impacted. And I've been told
that,
when the school year is out, you're going to see thousands more leave.

Also interviewed:

Alberto Games, Restaurant Manager (through translator): Our customers are
mostly Mexicans. And Mexicans here in Phoenix, most of them are illegal.
So if you're opening up a business to serve that community, you're going
to be limited.

[Narrator]: But at one Phoenix institution servicing immigrants, business
is up. At the Mexican consulate, Mexicans moving back across the border
come to get their papers in order.

All of this progress is under assault on two fronts: the Courts and
Congress.
bullet The ACLU, MALDEF, and the National Immigration Law Center are
suing
to overturn the Arizona law on behalf of two groups called Chicanos Por
La
Causa and Somos America.

What is their objection? As usual, €œ racial profiling.€� According to
MALDEFs Kristina Campbell, "This law will encourage employers to avoid
hiring workers who they perceive to be foreign-born because of an accent
or the color of their skin and lead to unfair firing of eligible
workers."
[ACLU Press Release, February 7, 2008]

Of course any law that deals with illegal aliens encourages "profiling"
of
Hispanics€”because most illegal aliens are Hispanics. What E-Verify
does
is make compliance easier for employers.

The other objection: E-Verify pre-empts federal law€”although the
E-Verify program was created by the Federal Government in the first
place.

The Arizona law was upheld in February, but last week the notoriously
Open
Borders federal 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals heard the case. At this
point, all we can do is wait and see.
bullet The other threat to E-Verify: Congressional inaction€”which is
usually a good thing.

The E-Verify program will sunset at the end of November. If it is not
reauthorized, all of the laws and edicts will become meaningless. Ken
Calvert and Chuck Grassley have introduced legislation in the House and
Senate respectively to renew the program. But there is significant
opposition.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D-AZ, ABI Rating D+] has introduced an
alternative system called Secure Electronic Employment Verification
System
in a separate bill called the New Employee Verification Act [NEVA] that
purports to solve the problem of illegal immigration. There are many
problems with NEVA, but the two biggest are that it only applies to new
employees€”and that it would explicitly void every single state law that
deals with hiring illegal aliens.

It has been gratifying to see state and local governments get serious
about illegal immigration.

It should force the federal government to act against the invasion.

Instead, it is showing ominous signs of acting against the states.

Naïve question: whose side is Washington on?"

Marcus Epstein [send him mail] is the founder of the Robert A Taft Club
and the executive director of the The American Cause and Team America
PAC.
A selection of his articles can be seen here. The views he expresses are
his own.

If you want to email or print out, format by clicking on this permanent
URL:
http://www.vdare.com/epstein/080618_everify.htm



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