A hearing held on June 15, 2011, by the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement opened the debate on proposed legislation (H.R. 2164) that would require all U.S. employers use E-Verify, the federal government’s electronic verification system, and would eliminate the I-9 immigration status form.
The legislation, which was introduced on June 14, 2011, has received strong support from Republican leaders in the House and has a good chance of passing there, according to sources familiar with the issue. Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is a chief co-sponsor of the bill, and he attended the subcommittee hearing.
“Twenty four million Americans are unemployed or have given up looking for work. Yet according to the Pew Hispanic Center, seven million people are working in the U.S. illegally. These jobs should go to legal workers,” Smith said during his opening comments at the hearing. “The ‘E’ in E-Verify could just as well stand for ‘easy’ and ‘effective.’ It takes just a few minutes to use and easily confirms 99.5 percent of work-eligible employees.”
When drafting the proposal, Smith and his staff sought the input of business and employee advocacy groups, according to sources familiar with the issue. Several business groups, including the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), praised the efforts of the Judiciary Committee members and their staff to draft the proposal. SHRM submitted a letter to Smith, signed by Henry G. “Hank” Jackson, the Society’s interim president and CEO. The letter commended the committee for including a provision in the bill that would pre-empt state and municipal ordinances impacting employer use of E-Verify.
“The patchworks of state and local verification laws are unworkable and creating a confusing set of legal requirements for American employers and employees,” the letter stated. “We, therefore, applaud you, Mr. Chairman, for including federal pre-emption provisions in your legislation to address the disparate network of state laws and provide for a uniform national system.”
Other employer groups, including the American Council for International Personnel (ACIP), agreed that a provision to pre-empt state laws was desperately needed. In addition, SHRM and ACIP praised the proposal’s inclusion of a pilot program to test and establish biometric verification processes.
“There is also ample evidence that the employment verification system is prone to fraud, forgeries and identity theft, making it difficult, if not impossible, for an employer to differentiate between the legal and illegal worker,” the SHRM letter stated. “SHRM believes inclusion of a biometric pilot program in The Legal Workforce Act will give employers the tools they need to keep illegal workers off their payrolls and to hire legal workers quickly, fairly and with confidence.”
Safe Harbor Provision Popular
In addition, employer groups praised the legislation’s safe harbor provision. The provision would shield employers from prosecution if they use E-Verify in good faith and receive an incorrect eligibility confirmation.
Representatives from the National Association of Home Builders and the National Restaurant Association testified at the hearing in support of H.R. 2164.
“Our members that use the program, and the head of human resources at the National Restaurant Association (NRA), have found E-Verify to be both cost effective and fast in helping guarantee a legally authorized workforce,” said Craig Miller, former chair of the board of directors for the restaurant group and a member of the association’s jobs and careers committee. “We realize that E-Verify is not infallible, as unauthorized workers using stolen or borrowed identifications might still pass an E-Verify check, but we support Congress’ efforts to establish a more effective federal system for all employers.”