Senate Excludes E-Verify Check on Illegal Immigrant Workers from Stimulus Package (Call, email!)
Hispanic Business ^ | 2-10-09 | Richard Kaplan
Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 12:38:32 PM by STARWISE
The Senate passed today a $838 billion stimulus plan that did not include E-Verify, a mechanism to check whether workers are legal immigrants or U.S. citizens.
While Senate Democrats blocked the E-Verify amendment from being voted on, the House has voted 417-2 in favor of including the worker identity checking program in its version of the stimulus package.
The fight over E-Verify, or Basic Pilot, now moves to the House-Senate conference where the differences between the two economic recovery packages will be hammered out in negotiations.
Proponents and opponents of the E-Verify measure have targeted the legislative negotiations as a key battleground over the issue.
Proponents of E-Verify say the measure is necessary to prevent newly created jobs from going to undocumented immigrant worker in the United States.
The House bill prohibits any stimulus funding from going to a company or government office that fails to use the E-Verify identity checking system. This online electronic database checks whether a person is authorized to work in the United States.
A number of groups including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, opposed the insertion of an E-Verify Measure into the bill.
The Hispanic Caucus sent a letter on Jan. 26 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arguing against the measure.
The caucus wrote that E-Verify would "disproportionately affect Hispanic workers and their employers . We urge you to ensure this provision is stripped from legislation."
The caucus argued that the database used to confirm the worker's status "has been widely documented as unreliable and inaccurate." They said that mistakes in the database could "result in 3.6 million workers a year being misidentified" as not authorized for employment.
In addition, "Foreign-born American citizens are 30 times more likely than native born workers to be incorrectly identified as ineligible for work."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce too has consistently opposed a mandatory E-Verify program.
In a press release, the chamber stated that "Given the current economy, now is not the time to add more bureaucracy and billions of dollars in compliance costs to America's businesses."
Randy Johnson, the chamber's vice president on immigrant and labor issues, said, "The Chamber supports legislative initiatives to develop and implement an electronic verification system, but first we must be sure that the system is effective, efficient, and manageable under real-world conditions."
In contrast, Federation for American Immigration Reform strongly argued for including E-Verify in the final bill. Dan Stein, FAIR's president yesterday wrote: "With millions losing jobs, it would be immoral for Senate leaders to neglect vital protections for U.S. workers."
He added, "When spending nearly one trillion dollars of taxpayers' money to reinvigorate the economy, the American people expect programs such as E-Verify be not only included but made mandatory."
Wow, ...am I the only one that saw the above highlighted text, ...or did others see it, but chose not to comment?
The idea behind this stimulus package is to stimulate the economy.
If one is going to undertake such a massive undertaking, those tweaks, bugs, and glitches had better be out of the system. How would you like to be a fully LEGAL American, laid off with a mortgage, wife, kids, and mouths to feed, ...about to lose your home, only to have some bureaucratic pencil pusher tell you you are ineligible for employment anywhere because some little computer screen says so. If they couldn't get the NO-FLY list right including 5 yr olds who weren't even born on 911 on the NO-FLY list, do you think they are going to be able to keep this straight? How would you like to be one among those 3.6 million other innocent workers inappropriately precluded from working ...anywhere. How good are you at holding a sign saying "Will work for food"? Because a tiny little data entry could be all that stands between you having to do that. I can't tell you how many times people spell my name incorrectly. If some data entry operator is having a dyslexic day while entering your SSN, you could be a very unhappy camper.
For all of those who are screaming they shouldn't get diddly squat... would you turn away their business?
If you sold homes for instance, and an illegal alien from Switzerland flew in after dipping into his bank account, wanting to buy a $5 million dollar home cash. Would you say screw you I'm not selling it to you? ...Illegals have no business stimulating the American economy?
If your child was choking and needed an emergency trachiotomy to save his life, ...would you allow Pedro, the surgeon from Argentina to save his life. I have a friend named Miguel who is an airline pilot. What if you were on an plane and it was just like the scene from Airplane, and the entire flight crew, captain, pilot, co-pilot etc, are all sick from bad fish. There's a storm and they can't use the automatic pilot, ...and Sully Sullenberg is on the ground in Hawaii enjoying a much deserved R & R with his loved ones. Would you allow my friend Miguel from Mexico, a passenger on the flight, but also major airline pilot for years to take over the plane, ...or would you say "Screw him, ...he's not American, and this airline is getting stimulus money"
In that life or death situation... what would you do?
The left wants them for votes.
The "country club" right wants them for cheap labor.
The taxpayers and American Citizens get screwed, as usual.
"The left wants them for votes, the "country club" right wants them for cheap labor and the tax payers and American citizens get screwed as usual"
Hmmmm... why does that not seem quite accurate to me?
Could it be that I noticed you made a distinction within the right. There's a country club right, ...but no members of the left belong to country clubs? Is that what you're implying? Are you implying that neither the left nor the "country club" right pay taxes, ...or that they are not American citizens? Because from my perspective the taxpayers and American citizens are one and the same... along with the left and the right, country club or otherwise. Or are you simply looking for a way to segregate yourself from the hypocrisy you witness from all sides of the political spectrum?
Perhaps a more accurate way of putting it is that many American citizens are willing to exploit illegal aliens as a demographic block, while others exploit them to do overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated jobs that many Americans will not do, which they do in the most horrific conditions and environments, many Americans are content to have aliens contribute to the creation of prosperous times, while they feel they're on the way up, ...but as soon as the economy slows down, ...they're ready to toss them out with the trash disregarding whatever value they've been bringing to the table, or will continue to bring. It's amazing how quickly people's perspectives change. One day someone is a valueable much needed asset, ...a bargain in fact... but the minute the economy turns... this asset is considered a burden? {sigh} Oh well, ...one can only hope that one day people will realize everyone is in the same boat with everyone else. The boat is either going to sink or float, but to navigate through the tight areas and the choppy rapids, you're going to need all hands on deck bailing water as fast as they can, and all oars in the water rowing the boat to shore.
It's the bottom of the 9th, two out, you're up at bat, the count is 3 balls, 2 strikes. The pitcher releases from the mound, ...are you going to tell me that you'd use that moment to check the imprint on the bat to ensure it was made in Louisville? ...or are you just gonna swing the darn thing? When you're up a creek with only one paddle, ...don't bother to see whether it was "Made in America, Made in Mexico, or Made in China" before you make use of it, ...just row the boat to shore! Sheesh
