Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

 

The “Legal Workforce Act” (H.R. 2164) Causes Outcry from Immigrant Rights Groups

On Wednesday, June 15, 2011, the House Immigration Subcommittee met to discuss H.R. 2164, also known as “The Legal Workforce Act,” (Rep. Lamar Smith, R-TX.) It was introduced to the House Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committee on Ways and Means. This bill would mandate the use of E-Verify, which is used to determine workers’ employment eligibility in the United States. The bill aims “ to curtail illegal immigration through increased enforcement of the employer sanctions provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act and related laws.” Employers would face increased penalties if they knowingly hire undocumented workers and state and local governments would have the power to revoke business licenses of employers who do not comply.

Although those currently employed will not need to be verified, the program would be phased in over a three-year period and any new hire would be vetted by E-Verify. The program has been implemented in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, and has been highly criticized for its high failure rate: many workers with legal work visas have received “Tentative Non-Confirmations” (TNCs), meaning that the electronic system did not verify them as eligible. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), “every report on the program has found major flaws such as a failure rate of more than 50 percent and database errors that lead to legal workers being wrongly rejected.”

AILA President David Leopold stressed that “If Congress makes this law; we will see thousands of employed or job-seeking Americans wasting their time standing lined up at government offices to clear up their records. No elected official will want to be blamed for that.”

Immigrant rights groups, such as the Guatemalan Immigrant Movement in the U.S. (MIGUA), have called the bill “the latest attack on immigrant communities in the U.S. […] that sows hate against workers.” MIGUA reminds businesses and lawmakers that undocumented workers continue to play an important role in the U.S. economy, and condemns Smith’s attempt to “take advantage of the current economic crisis to blame undocumented workers for the country’s economic problems.”

The bill has also been criticized by staunch anti-immigrant groups, calling it a sort of “amnesty” that will take power away from the States to implement their own laws.

Smith (along with Rep. Elton Gallegly R-Simi Valley) justified the bill in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed article, arguing that E-Verify will de-incentivize illegal border crossings and open employment opportunities for the 26 million unemployed or underemployed Americans.

For the 1.5 million Guatemalans living in the United States, who have migrated out of economic necessity, and whose families back home often depend on remittances, this bill would further limit the options for an already struggling community.

 

See also:

http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=35912

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/13/opinion/la-oe-gallegly-everify-20110613

http://newamericamedia.org/2011/06/mandatory-e-verify-will-cripple-americas-economy.php

http://ndn.org/blog/2011/04/e-verify-and-arizona-style-immigration-law-center-florida-immigration-debate

http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/76.pdf

http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/ircaempverif/Legal-Workforce-Act-summary-2011-06-14.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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