Congressional Inaction on E-Verify Traps Unemployed Americans

By Joe Guzzardi
November 2, 2011

In the debate about E-Verify, the online program that confirms whether newly hired employees are legally authorized to work in the United States, three things are clear.

First, E-Verify will be one of the 2012 election’s hot button topics. Second, detractors unable to come up with more persuasive anti-E-Verify arguments claim that the program is error-prone, would violate civil rights and would destroy the agriculture industry since the bill would disqualify alien labor. Third, to advance their theory that E-Verify would dry up the agriculture worker pool, opponents—hoping no one will notice—misrepresent labor statistics.

Both points two and three are fallacious. All employees and new hires covered by Chairman Lamar Smith’s Legal Workforce Act which would mandate E-Verify would be checked for legal status. Racial profiling or potential civil rights abuses are impossible. E-Verify, despite protests to the contrary, doesn’t have a high error rate. In fact, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services immediately confirms 98.7 percent of all applicants. Among those who receive tentative letters of non-confirmation, 0.3 percent of the cases are resolved in the employees favor while he remains on the job. The rest, about 1 percent, are mostly illegal aliens. Summarizing E-Verify, USCIS Deputy Press Secretary Bill Wright said: "Quite simply, the error rate is less than 0.3 percent.”

Despite the widespread inference that the nation depends on illegal alien labor to harvest crops, the facts don’t bear out that conclusion.

According to a report published by the Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey, 25 percent of crop laborers are U.S. citizens, 21 percent are legal immigrant workers some of whom have entered on an H-2A visa. That leaves 53 percent who are illegal aliens.

But the more important data is ignored. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that of the 8 million working illegal immigrants, only 4 percent are in agriculture. That means there are more than 7.5 million illegal aliens working at jobs most Americans would do—retail, hospitality and salaried positions.

Two months ago, the House Judiciary Committee passed Smith’s bill that would remove the jobs magnet and displace thousands of working aliens.

But E-Verify is stalled in the Republican controlled House despite Americans overwhelming support. A Rasmussen Reports’ recent telephone survey found that 82 percent of likely voters agree with Rep. Smith. Even though the Legal Workforce Act would dramatically reduce illegal immigration and put millions back to work, the two top House Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor have blocked it. With President Obama now releasing several hundred thousand aliens from deportation proceedings and issuing them permanent work permits, both political parties have cravenly victimized unemployed Americans.

President Obama and Congress have a responsibility to address the relationship between over-immigration and American unemployment. Instead, incumbents and candidates pay lip service to illegal immigration without a willingness to take the smallest step—E-Verify—to remedy the problem.

By the way, the pro-immigration lobby should be solidly behind E-Verify too. More than one in four American-born Hispanic voters with a high school diploma can’t find a full time job; for ages 18-29, the rate rises to one in three. The teenage Hispanic unemployment rate is 48 percent.

As Republicans stall and Democrats enable aliens to get jobs, American workers are stuck in the worst of both worlds with no place to turn.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns, mostly about immigration and related social issues, since 1986. He is a Senior Writing Fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns are syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. Contact him at [email protected].