Senate Excludes E-Verify Check on Illegal Immigrant Workers from Stimulus Package

The $838 billion stimulus package that was passed by the Senate does not include the  E-Verify provision that many Hispanic groups were opposing was not included. It was a controversial program that could greatly affect the Latino workforce. While Senate Democrats blocked the E-Verify amendment from being voted on, the House voted 417-2 in favor of including the worker identity checking pogrom in its version of the stimulus package.
The argument over including the E-Verify, also known as Basic Pilot, will be moved to the House/Senate conference where the differences between the two economic recovery packages will be discussed.
Those in favor of the E-Verify bill say that it is necessary to prevent undocumented immigrant workers in the United States from receiving benefits.. The House bill prohibits any stimulus funding from going to a company or government office that fails to use the E-verify identity checking system. This online electronic database checks whether a person is legally authorized to work in the United States.
Latino groups including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Human Resource Initative for a Legal Workforce opposed the insertion of an E-Verify measure into the bill. In fact, the Hispanic Caucus sent a letter back on Jan 26 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arguing against the measure. The caucus wrote the E-Verify would “disproportionately affect Hispanic workers and their employers”.
The database has widely been known to be documented to be unreliable and inaccurate. In fact the mistakes in the database could result in “result in 3.6 million workers a year being misidentified”. Also, there are more chances for “Foreign-born Americans citizens 30 times more than likely than native born workers to be incorrectly identified as ineligible for work.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform strongly argued for including E-Verify in the final bill. Dan Stein, FAIR’s president yesterday wrote: “With millions losing jobs, it would be immoral for Senate leaders to neglect vital protections for U.S. workers.” He added, “When spending nearly one trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money to reinvigorate the economy, the American people expect programs such as E-Verify be not only included but made mandatory.”

Hispanic Business