America's Voice Blog

Posted 02/09/09 at 11:33pm

Wall Street Journal Shows Lamar Smith the Way on E-Verify Immigration Measure

stimulusSome members of the House Judiciary Committee want to know: what could be better than squeezing sloppy work-site enforcement into the stimulus package?

Lamar Smith (R-TX) starts off his "Keep E-Verify System" Washington Times opinion piece by comparing immigrant workers to burglars and the government's massively flawed database to a set of good locks. 

It's hard to say which analogy is worse. Lamar continues:

This voluntary program is currently used by more than 100,000 employees across the nation. And more are signing up every day. A Department of Homeland Security evaluation found 96 percent of participating employers did not believe it overburdened their staffs. And the National Federation for Independent Business supports a bill that would make E-Verify mandatory.

Smith paints a very nice picture of how easy it is to use E-Verify, the government database. But why does the Wall Street Journal editorial board call it, "The Last Thing Employers Need," in that case? The answer is: if it hasn't worked suitably to date, probably better to not expand it exponentially. They argue:

In 2007, DHS commissioned an independent study of E-Verify, which concluded that "the database used for verification is still not sufficiently up to date to meet the requirements for accurate verification." The error rate was almost 10% for foreign-born U.S. citizens. E-Verify's vulnerability to identity fraud is also problematic. [...]

Most U.S. employers don't have a problem with being held accountable for the workers they hire, so long as the government is providing them with the proper tools to abide by the law. E-Verify clearly doesn't meet that standard, and until it does the program ought to remain voluntary.

That sounds a whole lot different than Lamar's take:

It is a sure way to protect jobs for U.S. citizen and legal immigrant workers alike, and ensure their jobs aren't stolen by illegal immigrants.

If you read to the conclusion of the Wall Street Journal editorial, though, it's clear what is really at work beneath these arguments. On the one hand, there's a desire in many corners to paint immigrant workers as everyday burglars. On the other, there's a growing understanding that the politics of immigration often eclipse rational policy decisions-and rational debate.

We are thankful that amendments to expand E-Verify were not added to the Senate version of the stimulus. The Wall Street Journal editors conclude:

Illegal immigration tends to flow and ebb based on the strength of the U.S. economy. Given the recession, it's likely to decline in the short-run, and Congress might use the lull to enact some substantive policy reforms. Work-site enforcement should be part of a broader immigration debate, not something slipped into a stimulus bill to placate protectionists.

Squeezing sloppy work-site enforcement into the stimulus package? Terrible idea. Overhauling our nation's tangled immigration laws? About time.

 

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