Volume 1, Issue 2 (June, 2007)

Proposed Immigration Reform Bill

Employer concerns over the Immigration Bill currently under review by the full U. S. Senate is growing. Senators will continue discussion on the bill when they resume the week of June 4th, following a week-long recess for Memorial Day. As is typical for our legislators, this bill is complex and has multiple facets to it. Highlights of this bill include:

• Granting quick legal status to an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States.

• Development of a temporary worker program allowing new arrivals into the US.

• Development of a point system that will emphasize skills and education instead of family connections in deciding whether immigrants should get permanent legal status.

• Enhanced security of our southern border.

• Requiring that high-tech employment verification (“Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification”) be used by employers to ensure workers are in the US legally.

From most employers' point of view, the main problem with this pending legislation is the “Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification” that would be required to by used by all employers. Concerns over the use of the proposed system include:

• It is not adequately supported by the government databases, which will be required to be referenced to verify that workers are in the United States legally.

• It does not provide adequate provisions to re-verify the identity and employment eligibility of all (current) employees, which would be required within three years of the bill becoming law.

• It is vulnerable to cases of identity theft, and might encourage unauthorized workers to engage in identity theft to get jobs.

• Liability would be assigned to an employer for actions of contractors or subcontractors, even if the employer using the contract labor or service lacks knowledge or control of the (sub)contractor’s employment practices.

To learn more about a “Basic Pilot” program currently being used to verify employment eligibility by cross-checking information with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database on a voluntary basis, go to the employer registration site:

https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration.
 

The next challenge to the reform proposal could come from amendments to eliminate or substantially reduce the guest worker program. It is argued that the guest worker program could lower wages for workers and create an “underclass” of immigrant workers. However, an argument for the guest worker program would be that it could help employers who are facing a severe labor shortage. Many employers’ concern is the provision that would require all U.S. businesses to use an electronic employment verification system operated by the Department of Homeland Security.