07/13/11 Yesterday, we wrote about a New America Media article noting that the slow flow of immigrants was negatively impacting California farms. But farmers in California could see things take a turn for the worse if House Republicans have their way and pass E-Verify.
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07/13/11 Once thought to have been the GOP's solution to its Latino problem, Marco Rubio's move to the right on immigration (from his previous stance of saying as little as possible on the issue) is a dubious strategy, to say the least, to curry favor with Latino voters. This is especially true as immigration remains the most important issue to the majority of them (particularly to those from his own state), ahead of jobs and the economy
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07/12/11 Last week, New America Media asked an important question about an industry directly impacted by immigration: Slow Flow of Immigrants Already Impacting California Farms? Some say yes. Others, not yet. But if Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill passes nationally, there will be a worker shortage -- and crops rotting in the fields.
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07/12/11 It's a rare piece of legislation these days that unites state and local business organizations, the labor movement, and a range of faith denominations across the country together in outrage. But that's exactly what's happening in response to the mandatory E-Verify legislation being championed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
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07/07/11 Rep. Lamar Smith's battle with Markos Moulitsas (of Daily Kos) continues. Rep. Lamar Smith has very, very thin skin. He does not like to be criticized, nor does he allow any critique of his flawed E-Verify legislation go unrebutted. The problem for Smith is that he's got no facts to back up his position, practically handing off yet another win to Markos.
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07/07/11 Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) sits on both the House Judiciary and Small Business Committees. She's a strong opponent of Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill. From her unique vantage point, Chu told her colleagues, "Mandatory E-Verify Legislation will Cripple Small Businesses."
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07/06/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) continues to insist that his forced E-Verify legislation would be a good thing for the U.S. economy and U.S. job seekers. However, Smith's fellow conservatives and leading libertarians disagree.
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07/05/11 CBS News went to Georgia to get the story of how that state's new immigration law, with its mandatory E-Verify provision, is impacting the state's agricultural industry. CBS confirms what we've been hearing. Farmers and growing are experiencing an immediate -- and costly -- impact.
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07/01/11 Rep. Lamar Smith claims E-Verify "is not an immigration bill, it's a jobs bill." But, Smith's definition of a "jobs bill" is one that kills 770,000 jobs, forces millions into an administrative quagmire, destroys America's agriculture industry and imposes new taxes and red tape on small business.
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07/01/11 The American agriculture industry "fears a disaster" if Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify legislation becomes law. The current situation in Georgia, which passed a state E-Verify and now has crops rotting on the vine, gives credence to those fears. Smith's bill poses grave dangers for farmworkers.
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06/29/11 Today, we heard an important pronouncement from President Obama at a White House press conference. The President made it clear that mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform is unacceptable. On E-Verify, the President gets it.
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06/27/11 Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that the U.S. agricultural industry was gravely concern about the prospects of E-Verify legislation, which is sponsored by one-third of our "Three Amigos" on immigration: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): The agriculture industry fears a disaster is on the horizon if the one bit of new immigration policy that Congress seems to agree on becomes law.
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06/24/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is promoting his E-Verify program as a "jobs" bill that will ease unemployed Americans' woes. It's telling that the first GOP "jobs plan" introduced this year would send unemployed manufacturing workers in Ohio or Michigan to the fields to pick fruit and vegetables. It's best described as a 21st Century Grapes of Wrath.
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06/20/11 The Smith-Grassley push to make the ineffective and burdensome E-Verify program mandatory nationwide continues to generate significant opposition from a broad range of observers, from the editorial board of La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language daily in the U.S., to the Service Employees International Union, to respected columnist Andres Oppenheimer. Interestingly, the Smith plan is also garnering strong opposition from the extreme right of the GOP.
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06/16/11 Yesterday, Congressman Lou Barletta (PA-11) released a statement expressing his strong opposition to Lamar Smith's E-Verify legislation, which would require all employers in the U.S. to use the flawed government program known as E-Verify to evaluate whether an employee is legal to work.
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06/16/11 Today in National Review, Mark Krikorian published his response to our long list of criticisms about the mandatory E-Verify bill that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are pushing.
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06/15/11 Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) each introduced their own versions of mandatory E-Verify legislation. Freshman senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is an original cosponsor of the Grassley bill. Marco Rubio might have stayed out of the immigration debate in Florida but he definitely isn't staying out of the national debate. After E-verify failed in Florida because of opposition from the business and Latino communities Marco Rubio is now throwing his support behind a bill that would nationalize and make mandatory that same program.
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06/15/11 Today House Republicans, led by Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), and Steve King (R-IA), unveiled the top bill on their anti-immigration agenda: a plan to make all employers in America use the deeply flawed E-Verify program to check the immigration status of their workers.
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06/14/11 The Los Angeles Times published a rebuttal to yesterday's glowing, but deficient in facts, op-ed on E-Verify from Representatives Lamar Smith and Elton Gallegly. Today, Raul A. Reyes actually uses facts to deconstruct the Smith/Gallegly spin on a program that would cause massive job losses -- and has the potential to wipe out the agriculture industry.
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06/13/11 Arguing that he is only looking to keep communities safer and combat undocumented immigration, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is pushing through two problematic bills with serious ramifications for due process of the law and for workers, including citizens and permanent residents.
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06/13/11 Representative Lamar Smith and Elton Gallegly wrote an op-ed in the LA Times about their E-Verify bill. They forgot to mention their plan would cause the loss of almost 800,000 jobs, force 4 million more workers into an administrative quagmire, cause an undue burden on small businesses, nearly wipe out the agricultural workforce, result in the loss of tax revenue – and, to top it off, E-Verify a failure rate of over 50%.
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06/08/11 Last month, Georgia passed one of the harshest new immigration laws in the country. Today, the AJC reports that nearly half of the 132 Georgia businesses polled in a private survey this month say they are experiencing agricultural labor shortages.
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06/08/11 Two of the masterminds behind the GOP’s mass deportation (of immigrants) strategy, Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Elton Gallegly (R-CA), chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, are introducing new legislation intended to bring about their extremist fantasy: the expulsion of 11 million undocumented immigrants and their families.  That’s what their [...]
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06/07/11 A new study from UC Davis found that stricter Immigration enforcement could have a harmful effect on California's agricultural industry. It could lead to more imports and "significantly boost labor costs."
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06/06/11 Because of the mandatory E-Verify legislation being pushed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the Associated Press reports that "The agriculture industry fears a disaster." Smith and his GOP colleagues are telling the American Agriculture industry to "Drop Dead."
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06/03/11 The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who fancies himself something of an expert on Latino politics, recently sent around a "Dear Colleague" linking to a Rasmussen Reports poll on workplace immigration enforcement. Smith is an ardent advocate of E-Verify and intends to introduce legislation to make it mandatory for all businesses and workers in the U.S.
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05/27/11 Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling to uphold Arizona's law requiring state businesses use the E-Verify system strikes a crushing blow to the Arizona agriculture industry. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) wants mandatory E-Verify at the national level, which would devastate the American Agricultural industry. In the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform at the Federal level, Smith's mandatory E-Verify will deport farms and jobs.
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