As of January 1, 2012, five more states require the use of E-Verify to check work authorization status of new hires, while California took the opposite stance and made it illegal for municipalities to mandate that companies use the program unless required by federal law.
Columnist Erwin de Leon says voters in next year’s presidential election will have a choice between GOP candidates who favor enforcement-only immigration policies and a president who says the right words but has yet to deliver on immigration reform.
The newest GOP presidential candidate has already been criticized by Republican immigration hard-liners for his policies in Texas, where Hispanics make up 38 percent of the population.
Fi2W columnist Erwin de Leon on the bill introduced this week by Rep. Lamar Smith that would make E-Verify mandatory nationwide.
Both supporters and opponents of Arizona’s SB 1070 see reason for hope in last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the state law requiring employers to verify the immigration status of prospective employees.
The high court has heard arguments on the Arizona Employer Sanctions law which allows the state to revoke the license of businesses that hire undocumented immigrants–and requires participation in the federal E-Verify program.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief Alan Bersin says border security is not enough. He wants tougher enforcement of laws designed to weed out immigrants who have committed serious crimes and target employers who exploit undocumented workers.
After a two year battle, voters in the small Nebraska city approve a measure that will essentially make it impossible for paperless immigrants to live or work within city-limits.
Alejandro Mayorkas was sworn in Aug 12 as USCIS director. (Photo: USCIS)
E-Verify, the often-criticized electronic system for checking workers’ immigration status, is apparently here to stay. President Obama’s chief of Citizenship and Immigration Services defended the system this week as the government continues to expand its use.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of USCIS, “defended the accuracy” of E-Verify during a talk with reporters who cover immigration, The Washington Times reported. This goes against what many business organizations and pro-immigrant advocates have said: that the system makes many mistakes that can leave legal residents jobless.
Mayorkas also said “the agency is continuing to improve the system and get it ready in case Congress mandates it for all U.S. businesses as part of an eventual immigration overhaul,” the Times Stephen Dinan wrote.
Just last week, the administration made it mandatory for federal contractors to use the system to check their workers’ status.
Mayorkas’ statement comes as the Obama administration apparently is attempting to advance immigration reform without alienating those who favor tougher restrictions on unauthorized immigration. E-Verify is a key piece of this strategy, along with other Bush-era enforcement measures that the Obama White House has embraced. This tougher-than-expected approach has irked many in the pro-immigration camp, who don’t see an equal zeal for advancing a reform bill or in making the immigrant detention system more humane.
The employee immigration status verification system known as E-Verify –hailed by conservatives, criticized by immigrant advocates– expired Friday. But the Senate was poised to renew it through Sept. 30 as part of the massive spending bill it approved yesterday.
E-Verify, which allows employers to check the immigration status of new hires, has been at the center of heated arguments. But the debate is not divided along partisan lines: President Barack Obama and both Republican and Democratic legislators want to keep the system in place.
According to Gannett News Service, the Senate was poised yesterday to approve the extension until the end of September, but it also rejected an amendment to re-authorize the program for five years.
Democratic leaders opposed (Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’) amendment because it would have slowed passage of the overall spending bill by requiring a second vote in the House.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he supports a longer extension of the program but opposes attempts to force employers to use it.
Although the program is not mandatory nationwide, it’s use is growing at a hurried pace, according to a story in The Boston Globe.
