Would Hamper Economic Recovery and Cost U.S. Workers Jobs
Since 1986, controlling illegal immigration by regulating who is entitled to work in the United States has been a key component of U.S. immigration policy. The ritual of showing proof of one’s identity and work authorization and filling out an I-9 form is part of every new hire’s paperwork haze.
First piloted in 1997 and known as the Basic Pilot, an electronic employment-verification program has been used as a complement to the paperwork process—an effort to use technology to improve compliance. Now known as E-Verify, the program is a federal, web-based program through which U.S. businesses can attempt to verify the work authorization of new hires. E-Verify is primarily a voluntary system. However, the federal government requires that all of its contractors use it, and some states have made it mandatory as well.
E-Verify is a compliance mechanism. But, somewhere along the way, it became confused with a deportation strategy. Calls for mandatory E-Verify tend to portray the program as a solution to our illegal immigration problem, and a way to generate jobs for unemployed Americans.
The reality is quite different. Mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform will not end illegal immigration, free up jobs for unemployed Americans, or save the country money. In fact, studies of E-Verify predict the opposite.
"Mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform will not end illegal immigration, free up jobs for unemployed Americans, or save the country money. In fact, studies of E-Verify predict the opposite."
Enough said? Really? More than half of the 6.2% of unauthorized workers beat the system in the Westat survey: that's not a glitch in the system; it's reality!
Still not convinced? We're of the opinion with Elliott Pollack that all we'll be doing is depriving ourselves of much need taxes, since employers will just find new ways to funnel their work underground.
Not buying it? Perhaps you need to lose your job through a system error, not even be told by your employer but when you show up to work be told that you don't have a job & that you're going to escorted from the premises if you don't leave immediately, be denied your paycheck(s) (since why should an employer pay you if they think you're "illegal"), have to navigate a byzantine government bureaucracy trying to correct the mistake - meanwhile you can't even get a job flipping burgers since the system keeps misidentifying you!
And your name is Bill Smith!
Or maybe you're an employer? Are you ready to pay $2.6 billion for such a colossal error-prone behemoth? Are you ready to pay $127 at least for every employee who comes through your door? You know that the big guys won't: why should you?
And that's before the mistakes affect you! If you think that Obamacare is socialism, why on Earth would you sign up with E-Verify?
And if you're a taxpayer, you should really be upset: not only are they going to cut millions of taxpayers from the tax rolls, but then they're going to charge us as well to run this bogus system! Did you see that CBO estimate that the program "would decrease federal revenues by $17.3 billion over 10 years"?
We have to agree with IPC that mandatory E-Verify is just "bad for the bottom line"! The undocumented aren't just going to leave - they're just going to go underground! It won't prevent identity theft, & we will all lose time & money to the beast!
We need a just & humane immigration policy in this country & this is just one more way that we're not going to have it!
If you really want the undocumented to "go home" as you say, repeal the "free trade" acts that have deprived them of their basic necessities at home - indeed, considering the damage which we've done to their countries through such exploitative policies, we should invest in aid work as reparations & pay them to rebuild their lives!
Mandatory E-Verify without Legalization
ReplyDeleteWould Hamper Economic Recovery and Cost U.S. Workers Jobs
Since 1986, controlling illegal immigration by regulating who is entitled to work in the United States has been a key component of U.S. immigration policy. The ritual of showing proof of one’s identity and work authorization and filling out an I-9 form is part of every new hire’s paperwork haze.
First piloted in 1997 and known as the Basic Pilot, an electronic employment-verification program has been used as a complement to the paperwork process—an effort to use technology to improve compliance. Now known as E-Verify, the program is a federal, web-based program through which U.S. businesses can attempt to verify the work authorization of new hires. E-Verify is primarily a voluntary system. However, the federal government requires that all of its contractors use it, and some states have made it mandatory as well.
E-Verify is a compliance mechanism. But, somewhere along the way, it became confused with a deportation strategy. Calls for mandatory E-Verify tend to portray the program as a solution to our illegal immigration problem, and a way to generate jobs for unemployed Americans.
The reality is quite different. Mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform will not end illegal immigration, free up jobs for unemployed Americans, or save the country money. In fact, studies of E-Verify predict the opposite.
"Mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform will not end illegal immigration, free up jobs for unemployed Americans, or save the country money. In fact, studies of E-Verify predict the opposite."
ReplyDeleteEnough said? Really? More than half of the 6.2% of unauthorized workers beat the system in the Westat survey: that's not a glitch in the system; it's reality!
Still not convinced? We're of the opinion with Elliott Pollack that all we'll be doing is depriving ourselves of much need taxes, since employers will just find new ways to funnel their work underground.
Not buying it? Perhaps you need to lose your job through a system error, not even be told by your employer but when you show up to work be told that you don't have a job & that you're going to escorted from the premises if you don't leave immediately, be denied your paycheck(s) (since why should an employer pay you if they think you're "illegal"), have to navigate a byzantine government bureaucracy trying to correct the mistake - meanwhile you can't even get a job flipping burgers since the system keeps misidentifying you!
And your name is Bill Smith!
Or maybe you're an employer? Are you ready to pay $2.6 billion for such a colossal error-prone behemoth? Are you ready to pay $127 at least for every employee who comes through your door? You know that the big guys won't: why should you?
And that's before the mistakes affect you! If you think that Obamacare is socialism, why on Earth would you sign up with E-Verify?
And if you're a taxpayer, you should really be upset: not only are they going to cut millions of taxpayers from the tax rolls, but then they're going to charge us as well to run this bogus system! Did you see that CBO estimate that the program "would decrease federal revenues by $17.3 billion over 10 years"?
We have to agree with IPC that mandatory E-Verify is just "bad for the bottom line"! The undocumented aren't just going to leave - they're just going to go underground! It won't prevent identity theft, & we will all lose time & money to the beast!
We need a just & humane immigration policy in this country & this is just one more way that we're not going to have it!
If you really want the undocumented to "go home" as you say, repeal the "free trade" acts that have deprived them of their basic necessities at home - indeed, considering the damage which we've done to their countries through such exploitative policies, we should invest in aid work as reparations & pay them to rebuild their lives!