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E-Verify Passes House
By Greg L | 16 February 2010 | Illegal Aliens, Crime, Virginia House | 14 Comments
Delegate Dave Albo’s HB 737 was originally designed to improve employment opportunities for the roughly 275,000 Virginians out of work by mandating that Virginia businesses use the E-Verify system, as several other states have already done. Because of concerns that Senate Democrats would kill a jobs bill if it meant that illegal aliens might be displaced from employment, the bill was dramatically scaled back by the House Committee on General Laws to only apply to Virginia state and local government. It’s still a good bill, even if that means unscrupulous private employers can still use cheap illegal alien labor rather than employ legal workers, and today it passed the House of Delegates on an 82-13 vote.
It is very unfortunate that instead of following the lead of Oklahoma and Arizona, which dramatically improved employment opportunities for legal workers when it mandated all businesses to actually verify the Social Security Numbers of job applicants through this program, concerns about the priorities of the Virginia Senate dictate that such an incremental approach is needed. Unemployed Virginians who could be working for private businesses will instead remain without work so that illegal aliens can remain competitive in the job market. But at least our tax dollars will no longer be spent hiring illegal aliens. It’s an improvement. A big one, that former Governor Kaine steadfastly refused to consider.
The almost total lack of enforcement of our labor laws at the local, state and federal level unfortunately means programs like this are necessary. There’s only been a handful of employers in the last several years who faced significant civil or criminal penalties by being caught employing cheap illegal aliens. Illegals who put down patently false Social Security Numbers on I-9 forms still get hired, and the Obama Administration has actually stopped the practice of even informing employers when an employee’s Social Security Number doesn’t match the name of the individual who has been assigned that number. Identity theft for the purpose of unlawful employment continues to run rampant, and workplace enforcement of our labor laws is lackadaisical at best.
The biggest obstacle to resolving this situation isn’t the Democrats per se, it’s the business lobby including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They don’t want to see anything compromise the opportunity for those employers breaking the law to easily obtain cheap illegal alien labor and evade any consequences for doing so. At least with this bill, the Chamber of Commerce can’t whine about impacts on their membership since the E-Verify mandate will only apply to government employees.
While the day of reckoning for unscrupulous employers has once again been deferred, it will eventually come. Too many unemployed Virginians who could be filling the jobs illegal aliens now hold absolutely demand it. When that day comes, let’s hope that reckoning includes stiff civil and criminal penalties for those who have been profiting from breaking the law at the expense of legal workers.
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As one of the citizen-activists who worked hard for the victory of Delegate Dave Albo’s H.B. 737 in the House, I understand that there is about four weeks of hard work ahead of us before H.B. 737 is signed by Governor McDonnell. H.B. must first pass in a Commonwealth of Virginia Senate Subcommittee and then be passed by the full Senate. Lobbyists for those that want to maintain the status quo prevented a similar Senate bill from passing in the subcommittee during the 4 weeks that H.B. 737 was making its way through the House of Delegates.
I strongly urge readers to sign up for a no-cost membership at NumbersUSA.com, which is based in Arlington, Virginia so that you will be kept informed of how you can best help to defeat these greedy, callous business people and pass H.B. 737.
Dr. Nelson,
I would sure love to know the names of those businesses that lobbied to kill the bill in the Senate Subcommittee.
Could you provide that information?
How can this still be a good bill if state and local governments already require I-9 forms? Isn’t this just adding yet another unfunded mandate to local governments for no purpose?
I-9 forms certainly haven’t done a thing to stop illegal hiring practices. There’s no mechanism with an I-9 form to determine whether the information provided is fraudulent. E-Verify, a free program that you use over the internet and takes only a moment to use, matches a person’s name and Social Security Number along with other tests to ensure that the person is who they say they are, and if they’re here on a work visa that the visa is current and valid.
About 300,000 businesses in the US choose to participate in the program. How often have you seen a business voluntarily take on an “unfunded mandate” unless they saw real value in the program?
Actually, e-Verify is free to use and has an easy registration process.
Though I agree, it is ridiculous that state and local governments need additional, specific legislation to ensure they follow federal law, it is desperately needed.
“Reid Jobs Bill Gives Tax Breaks for Hiring Illegal Workers”
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unveiled his jobs bill last week that proposes tax exemptions and tax credits for employers who hire and retain workers—regardless of their immigration status. Senator Reid introduced his bill, entitled the “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act,” immediately after shelving a more extensive bill authored by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Chair and Ranking Member of the Finance Committee. In doing so, Reid said he wanted to focus clearly on the “jobs message” he thought the Senate should be sending to the American people. (Roll Call, Feb. 16, 2010).
The Reid bill has two primary tax provisions that are intended to spur employment. The first would exempt employers from payroll taxes for new employees hired before January 1, 2011. (§101) A qualifying employer is virtually any employer except government bodies, although an exception is created for colleges and universities. To be a qualifying employee, the worker must:
(1) Begin employment with a qualified employer after February 3, 2010, but before year end;
(2) Sign an affidavit stating that he/she was not employed for more than 40 hours during the 60-day period prior to beginning employment with the qualified employer;
(3) Not displace another of the qualified employer’s workers; and
(4) Not be a relative, broadly defined, of the employer. (See §101)
Nowhere in Section 101, however, is there a requirement that the individual be legal. Nor does the language require that the employer use E-Verify to verify work authorization. The language appears to allow employers to receive tax breaks for hiring illegal workers or for importing foreign workers.
The second major tax provision of the bill provides employers with a $1,000 tax credit for each “retained worker” hired in 2010. (§102) To qualify as a “retained worker,” the individual must:
(1) Meet the definition of a qualified employee under §101 (see above);
(2) Be employed during the taxable year;
(3) Be employed by the employer for no less than 52 consecutive weeks; and
(4) Maintain wages at a certain threshold during the 52-week period.
Like Section 101, this tax credit does not require the employee to be legal or require that the employer use E-Verify to establish the employee’s work authorization.
Action on the Reid Jobs Bill is expected next week and Senate sources have told FAIR that the Senate Majority leader has already taken steps to block amendments to the bill. Stay tuned to FAIR for more information as the Reid Jobs Bill moves forward.”
State and local government are already doing a reasonably good job at identifying legal employees. Their loophole is using contractors. Prince William County’s OIT scandals are a good example of this where a great deal of the IT work was farmed out to private companies. In those cases, the County did not even use enough due diligence to prevent the kick-back schemes that went on for years, much less the employment status of people working for the firms.
Prince William County needs to start immediately requiring all firms with which it does business to document that all of its employees have been checked through E-Verify. As Greg noted, this process is easy and cheap for the businesses. The only reason they would not want to do it would be to continue exploiting illegal alien workers being paid to do contracting work for the County.
If Prince William County is serious about preventing illegal immigrants from displacing US workers, they would implement a requirement that no firm is eligible to do work for the County without the E-Verify documentation of its work force.
Do you realy think the Senate will pass even this watered-down bill? If you do, I have some prime swamp land in Florida I would like to sell to you.
Business people are using proxies such as the “Virginia Utility & Heavy Contractors Council” (VUHCC) to make it more difficult to identify the firms that wish to retain the status quo. Here is what the VUHCC said in an online posting dated 24 January 2010 regarding Delegate Albo’s bill.
….Electronic Work Verification Program:
We remain concerned about two electronic work verification bills, HB 737 (Delegate Dave Albo, R-Fairfax County) and SB 225 (Senator George Barker, D-Fairfax County). The bills, while differing slightly, would both require contractors and subcontractors with 15 or more employees to register and participate in the federal E-Verify program to determine that workers are legally eligible for employment. We have been invited by Delegate Albo to attend a demonstration of the E-Verify system this week…….
I provided the demonstration of the E-Verify system that the VUHCC, among other industry lobbyists attended. The questions from this audience made it clear that they were opposed to passage of H.B. 737.
The employer proxies also made clear their displeasure when testmony was invited in the Commonwealth of Virginia House of Delegates regarding H.B. 737 in Richmond on the night of 11 February 2010.
Here is the bottom line. The situation is what it is because big business and cowardly, venal legislators want it that way.
Nothing has changed. The dance goes on.
Every patriotic American and legal resident can accomplish something to halt or recede the illegal immigration occupiers of our nation, which includes contacting ICE. We all know the astronomical costs in hospital treatment, education, prison and unrevealed government entitlement. Americans must stand together and demand all immigration laws be rigidly enforced. Our own impoverished, hopeless people remain in terrible poverty, will our politicians have been heavily influenced by open border lobbyists. We need a in-perpetuity E-Verify verification program to differentiate from illegal and illegal workers for each state internal use.Every worker who has been employed for 30 years or just hired–MUST–be identified in every company. In addition the 287 (g) federal program that has not been established by every state, county or city police department.
This program also-MUST–be established and paid for by the government to train local police to apprehend illegal foreign nationals. Including in the SAVE ACT law, is the rescinded NO-MATCH-LETTER, that identifies discrepancies in cross-references a possible bogus name that doesn’t correspond with a Social Security number. The No Match letter must be resurrected, including Homeland Security Secretary Napolitiano who has compromised under handily slowed ICE audits and raids on businesses using illegal aliens. Our government has even been reckless in underfunding the Southern border fence, that as stated in The Secure Fence Act (Pub.L. 109-367) was enacted October 26, 2006 was meant to be constructed in as a two tier fence. Each one of these laws have been silently either underfunded or secretly smothered, so it became weak in enforcement.
Then how can Pelosi tell us, that our fence is secure, when Arizona-Tucson sector border officers explain that “Out of ten (10) illegal immigrants, only one (1) is caught.” I think anybody who believes our country has just 12 million illegal people, will believe just about anything Washington reports. Could they be giving this number, as they hiding the truth as they are readying to his us with this non-nonsensical AMNESTY? Not only will it have millions streaming across the Canadian and Southern border, before the act is signed? While millions more will try and slip through the enforcement net, for a future AMNESTY. Were you aware that Bush set up a Social Security totalization treaty with Mexico, with loopholes so illegal aliens could access billions of dollars? Are you also aware that massive numbers of tourists and students have for decades were never expected to leave our shores.
Learn more at NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIAL WATCH for the truth. Incidentally–THOSE WHO ENTERED–LEGALLY THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND DEMANDED NOTHING! TODAY, ALTHOUGH ILLEGAL THEY ARE COMING HERE WITH A DIFFERENT ATTITUDE, DEMANDING RIGHTS THEY DON’T HAVE.
What excuse do politicians have to sell American jobs overseas, while importing discount labor. Enact amendment to the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli bill, don’t use propaganda to say the laws were broken–when never enforced. Tell your Washington and state Senators and Representatives what–YOU–want, and not–CONSPIRE–with the special interest lobbyists? Here’s the Capitol Switchboard number 202-224-3121 ONE LANGUAGE, ONE FLAG AND DEPORT–ALL–ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. IT CAN BE DONE WITH THE NEW GENERATION OF E-VERIFY.
Never any copyright. Let “THE PEOPLE KNOW.”
Referring to businesses that hire and that encourage the hiring of illegal aliens as “greedy,” “callous,” and “unscrupulous” is a misrepresentation of the truth. These businesses and their owners/principles (like Dr. Stephen Fuller of George Mason U.) are nothing more than traitors. They should be referred to as such.
- And they should be dealt with as the traitors that they are.
Westat, a research company was hired to evaluate the E-Verify software for the Homeland Security Department to identify illegal labor cheating the system. The company stated that E-Verify missed so many illegal workers mainly because it cannot detect identity fraud. But then anybody with one brain cell in their head E-Verify is only as good as the databases it uses? Of course it not perfected yet? But then if 9 out of 10 illegal illegal immigrants slip though the US Border patrol gauntlet, according to the Arizona Tuscon sector, as that’s not 100 percent proof either? Work out those illegal alien numbers for yourself for those who are never snared? It’s millions each year. That why the tired old number of 12 million living here unrestrained, makes no sense either? The E-Verify system, the state-county-city police apprehension federal training program, the Southern border fence, Sheriff Joe Arpaio arrests undermined, the No match IRS verification letters, even ICE raids have all been compromised. IF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IS RELUCTANT TO ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS?
THEN ITS UP TO INDIVIDUAL STATES TO PROTECT VULNERABLE LEGAL RESIDENTS WITH IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT.
On the outside they are all seen to work for the public eye, but under the skin they are either underfunded or some other mechanism used to undermine its use. Most politicians are payed-off by the massive business sector, to allow the free movement of discount labor. E-Verify was nearly crippled from the start by Sen.Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and nearly tabled before it seeing the light of day. Even though it slipped through, it is only funded for three years. Because of its powerful potential it needs to be a permanent program, that cannot be touched by the open border organizations. Every disreputable corporate concern is livid that legislators have allowed it to become very popular amongst honest business. Business owners who use illegal foreign labor have used every method to repudiate the use of E-Verify throughout America.
Certain Governors, Mayors, judges and other elected officials have tried to blacklist E-Verify, as monetary favors for Wall Street and a whole volume of organizations such as the Catholic church, other religious groups, unions, ACLU, La Raza and open border extremists who profit from illegal immigration. American workers, citizens and legal residents must demand that E-Verify becomes permanent, fully funded and where no business remains untouched? There should be a timetable of ICE audits and lightening raids, that can even return after a month or two. Any patriotic American can call ICE and report unscrupulous companies using illegal labor. Its the duty of every law abiding citizen or resident. That anybody hiring illegal immigrants after E-Verify can detect fraudulent documentation as the computer program in the immediate future, should go to prison as they are aiding and abetting illegal labor stealing American jobs. SO E-VERIFY REJECTS YOUR JOB APPLICATION? GO TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY AGENCY–TO STRAIGHTEN THE APP OUT? A good Example of not statewide using E-Verify is the SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA–THE STATE IS NOW BROKE.
THE LAW SHOULD ALSO BE CHANGED MAKING ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO THE US A FELONY, instead of a slap on the wrist. Only American voters can stop these travesties of our immigration system. We don’t need anymore cheap labor, as we have 15 million of our population jobless. We need a “points System” for highly skilled imported labor. We need checks and balances so immigration lawyers cannot cheat the system. We need the 1986 Immigration law enforced, with perhaps new amendments. Tell these corrupt lawmakers in Washington and your states–WHAT YOU WANT–NOT WHAT THEIR BUSINESS BENEFICIARIES WANT? The Washington toilet must be emptied, for our own survival. Call your Representative at 202-224-3121 and demand rigid immigration enforcement.
The cost to the American people for supporting illegal immigrant families is unimaginable. Read the truth about corruption and the illegal immigration occupation of our country at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIALWATCH, IMMIGRATIONBUZZ, RIGHTSIDENEWS & DIRECTORBLUE.
No Copyright! Pass around. American Jobs for American Workers. One flag, one language.