[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15658-15659]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                E-VERIFY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KEN CALVERT

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 14, 2011

  Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the E-Verify 
Program and legislation pending in the House. Last weekend California 
Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1236, making it illegal for the 
state and California municipalities to voluntarily use the
E-verify system. This is an outrage.
  Right now, across America, various states and local governments are 
enacting mandatory E-Verify. Meanwhile, California is going the other 
way by enacting a ban on voluntary E-Verify, and in fact the Governor 
is signing laws to preempt the use of E-verify.
  The illegal population looking for work will now head to states that 
are ignoring the problem and away from states like Arizona and Alabama 
which have taken a proactive role to fill the vacuum the federal 
government has left with regard to immigration policy. People will 
understandably go where they can find work. However, in a state with 
12.1% unemployment, we cannot afford the burden on our schools and 
social services the influx brings. This is why we need a uniform system 
that ensures ALL workers in America are legal and paying into the 
system that they are using.

[[Page 15659]]

That is why I support and am a sponsor of H.R. 2885, the Legal 
Workforce Act.
  Before I came to Congress, I owned and operated several restaurant 
businesses. I was required by law to hire a legal workforce but there 
was no tool available to determine if the identifying documentation 
presented at the time of employment was fraudulent. When I first 
created employment verification in 1996, I wanted to build a system 
that would utilize existing information and processes that was 
reliable, fair and simple to use.
  At that time, and still today, every employer is required to file an 
I-9 form based on paper identification documents. My solution was 
simple: provide employers a way to check that a given name and Social 
Security number match government records. Today, the E-Verify program 
has over 268,000 employers representing 900,000 hiring sites. In fiscal 
year 2011, there have been more than 10.9 million queries run through 
the system. The Legal Workforce Act would essentially make E-Verify 
mandatory by requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement 
a verification process for mandatory employment verification.
  Of the millions of queries run through the computer based E-Verify 
system, 98.3 percent of employees are instantly verified. Individuals 
who are given a tentative non-confirmation are given eight business 
days to contact SSA or DHS regarding their case. Currently one percent 
of all queried employees choose to contest an E-Verify result and only 
half of them--point five percent--are successful in contesting that the 
governments information was incorrect. E-Verify is doing the job it was 
intended: denying employment to people in the United States not 
authorized to work.
  E-Verify is ready for mandatory use. The Legal Workforce Act would 
phase in the mandatory requirement over 24 months for most employers 
with the exception for agricultural labor which will have 36 months to 
comply. As a member from an agriculture state, I think it is important 
to ensure our agriculture community has the labor they need. I support 
parallel legislation to provide a workable guest worker program that 
includes the necessary safeguards to ensure that guest workers leave on 
time. This should be easier to do because with mandatory employment 
verification guest workers will not be able to secure a legal job in 
the U.S. after their seasonal work visa expires.
  The Legal Workforce Act also implements worker protections for 
mismatched Social Security numbers and use of multiple Social Security 
numbers. The bill also provides good faith exemptions for employers who 
use the program while increasing the penalties for employers who 
knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
  The Legal Workforce Act is a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to 
mandatory employment verification and E-Verify is ready to fulfill the 
obligation. America is ready for mandatory employment verification: 
employers are required by law to hire a legal workforce, and mandatory 
E-Verify will ensure that they are complying with the law.
  While the legal name of the current program is ``Basic Pilot 
Program,'' the effective brand name is E-Verify. Many businesses have 
incorporated the term ``E-Verify'' into their business and marketing 
plans. I would strongly suggest that we enshrine the name in law to 
provide clarity and continuity for businesses currently using E-Verify.
  E-Verify is an extremely effective program and as we've seen from 
recent actions all over the country, from Arizona to Rhode Island, 
mandatory employment verification is quickly becoming a reality. As 
Members of Congress responsible for controlling our borders and 
enforcing legal employment, let's build upon what works and give the 
American people what they want: a federal law mandating employment 
verification.

                          ____________________