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The Battle Over Immigration is 老澳门开奖结果 to Affect All of Us in a Big Way

If the flawed E-Verify had been mandatory last year, 1.2 million Americans would have had to fix their records before they could start a new job.
Chris Calabrese,
Legislative Counsel, 老澳门开奖结果 Washington Legislative Office
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June 14, 2011

Many of us have strong opinions about immigration, but few feel the direct impact from the injustices of immigration law. That鈥檚 about to change.

Despite a significant error rate, pleas from multiple sectors of American business, and the heightened risk of identity theft, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is dead-set on pushing legislation that would make the flawed E-Verify system mandatory for every U.S. worker and today he introduced H.R. 2164, the Lawful Workforce Act, which would do just that. This initiative is one of the top Republican priorities for this Congress.

In simple terms, E-Verify is basically a federal 鈥渞ight to work鈥 list. If you are correctly entered in the system, you can start a new job. If something is wrong with your record (such as a name change or data error), you have to wait in line at the Social Security Administration or with the Department of Homeland Security to get your record fixed. and, if so, you鈥檙e out of luck and out of work.

Using current error rates, if E-Verify had been mandatory last year, 1.2 million Americans would have had to fix their records before they could start a new job. Wow. Government reports have with name changes, Hispanic surnames, and hyphenated names as having particular problems.

You鈥檒l feel some other effects as well. If you are a small business owner, you have to wade through the someone new. If you鈥檙e a taxpayer, you鈥檒l be paying your share to make up for the approximately $17 billion in lost tax revenue caused when employers move to hire people off the books (that number is courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office). If you鈥檙e worried about privacy, you鈥檒l love the pilot program to create a biometric national ID.

The kicker is that E-Verify doesn鈥檛 work. of undocumented workers get through the system.

Rep. Smith is expected to push the Lawful Workforce Act quickly through the House and the bill will be a high priority for Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate. The immigration wars are coming to your workplace and your job 鈥 get ready.

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