Texas and E-Verify: Cheap labor vs. rule of law – IOTW Report

Texas and E-Verify: Cheap labor vs. rule of law

Watchdog: While Texas officials talk tough about sanctuary cities, their record on employment of illegal immigrants is much softer.

“Those wishing to regain control of illegal immigration have always known that one key to doing so is to turn off the jobs magnet that draws many illegals here,” said David Ray, spokesman for the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick lists implementation of E-Verify employment vetting as a top legislative priority this year. Senate Bill 23 would require Texas businesses to use the federal database as a precondition to receiving state contracts.

But Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Joe Straus have not signed on to the idea, lending credence to enforcement advocates complaints that the state’s Republican leaders are more comfortable with talk than action.

Meantime, SB 23 is encountering pushback from Democrats and others who vilify E-Verify as a “show-us-your-papers” system.

E-Verify compares information applicants submit on their I-9 employment-eligibility documents to 80 million records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and 445 million records at the Social Security Administration.

JoAnn Fleming, executive director of the conservative activist group Grassroots America, says Texas’ current laissez-faire policies exploit workers.

“The Chamber of Commerce, labor lobbyists and economic developers with liberal media complain about exploited workers. OK, exploited by whom? By companies willfully ignoring immigration laws,” she told Watchdog.org.

Illegal immigrants employed at Target and H-E-B stores were highlighted in a Texas Tribune article last month.  MORE

9 Comments on Texas and E-Verify: Cheap labor vs. rule of law

  1. I tried many years ago to get the state here to extend labor protections to undocumented workers, in order to remove one major incentive for hiring illegals. They played a game of blame the other guy and it ended at that.

    E-verify has been available for decades. Why it isn’t mandatory is beyond comprehension, assuming lawmakers want their law enforced — but they don’t want it enforced and never intended it to be. It was always meant as window dressing.

    I was informed a few years back, by Social Security, that I was working at a restaurant in a nearby city. It was news to me. I asked if they were going to investigate and prosecute. They replied that they would not.

    E-verify would have kept my SS number from being used illegally. Mandating E-verify isn’t an invasion of privacy. All the employer is doing is verifying that the information provided to fill out the I-9 is genuine. The whole process ought not to take more than a minute.

  2. Enforce E-Verify at all levels, nationwide.
    All it takes is an internal memo to all agencies.
    Problem solved.

    Any violation makes the violator ineligible to do any Federal business, or receive Federal funds or benefits in any way. That’s virtually every major corporation (and university) everywhere. And 99% of all illegal jobs.

    All the laws President Trump needs are already on the books.
    Just enforce them.
    That’s the beauty of it.

    Winning!

  3. All people who hire anyone: gardner, maid, pool guy, etc. be required to use E-Verify. If they don’t and are found out they hired an illegal, they should be ineligible for ANY public office. EVER.

  4. Texas. All hat, no cattle. require a state license to be an interior decorator? They regulate the shit out of small business just like any other nanny state in America does. One law would fix this: Employers must match the employees SSN with the name and address on record. Results: Millions of wage lowering, cutting in line job takers would have to move south of the border and it will cost a bit more to stay in a hotel or get a meal at the local restaurant or frame the new home going up down the street, in exchange for employing your once unemployed American neighbors.

  5. There is no goddamn way they are even filing
    good I-9’s. Period. I do all of them for my remote
    company office location. I’d get jail time
    for faking them. Where is the followup by the feds
    on auditing the I-9 programs of the companies?
    You have to submit it to the feds within 72 hours
    of employment or the company can get fined.

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