News Analysis
Trumpeted as a way to take away jobs from the millions of undocumented, or illegal, immigrants and give them to unemployed Americans, the Legal Workforce Act was introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) last week. While it sounds ideal, under scrutiny, the legislation looks like a knee-jerk reaction to the souring economy and an uncharacteristic wish for bigger government from the Republican Party.
“With unemployment at 9 percent, jobs are scarce. Despite record unemployment, 7 million people work in the U.S. illegally. These jobs should go to legal workers,” said Rep. Smith, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, in a press release from June 14.
The bill would require all businesses in the nation to use an Internet database, known as E-Verify, that relies on the files of the Social Security administration and Department of Homeland Security to verify that potential new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States.
Work authorization is already required based on a federal law from 1986, but other than for government jobs and government contractors, the existing law is not enforced, for the most part.
The main difference with the new bill is a greater level of involvement from the federal government in all levels of business. While large companies employing over 10,000 would have to begin to use E-Verify within six months, smaller companies with just a couple of people would have two years, and agricultural employers, who often depend on undocumented immigrant workers, would have three years.
From big companies to small, the new bill’s overtone is that the federal government is increasingly watching, and at its discretion, enforcing.
In an Op-Ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Rep. Smith wrote last week, “In fact, after being subjected to several Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audits, Chipotle now uses E-Verify at all of its restaurants nationwide to help ensure that it hires legal workers.”
With E-Verify, the government is both good cop and bad cop. The bad cop is the government’s own audits of Chipotle that created the perceived problem in the first place. E-Verify is the good cop that solves the problem of making sure that your employees are legally authorized to work.
Criticism has focused on E-Verify’s loopholes and cost.
A Westat study commissioned last year by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services found that over half of the unauthorized immigrants who go through E-Verify are not detected. The problem is that if immigrants falsely submit the documentation of someone else that is authorized to work, E-Verify incorrectly gives them the stamp of approval.
This criticism could theoretically be ironed out by some high-tech innovation. The Government Accountability Office has already shown continuing improvements in E-Verify.
The more damaging indictment of E-Verify is the cost to small businesses.
A Bloomberg government report found that on top of $287 million in taxpayer money needed to fund E-Verify, the program currently costs businesses with fewer than 500 workers about $2.6 billion a year. Companies have to train staff to use the system or pay private firms to use it for them.
While Republicans are known for supporting smaller government and less burdens on small businesses, Rep. Smith and his bill’s 11 co-sponsors—all of whom are Republicans—seem to be running counter to the Party’s small government mantra.
“Republicans are notorious for talking about small government, but delivering the opposite. … This E-Verify proposal is one more example of Republican initiated big government,” said Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian National Committee, in an e-mail. The Libertarian Party, which falls on the right of the political spectrum, is rooted in ideals of smaller government, and its candidates often draw votes away from Republican candidates.
Even if it does clear the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Smith’s Legal Workforce Act is unlikely to make it through the Democratic majority Senate or the White House.
Still, in the last year, five states have already passed controversial local laws requiring all businesses use E-Verify, and North Carolina is also expected to do the same soon. Smith’s bill isn’t serious legislation meant to go anywhere in the near future, but it does highlight the state of the economy, and perceived solutions that are gaining traction.
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