ImmigrationAgriculture industry concerned over expansion of E-Verify

Heavy dependence on unverified labor // Source: claudiocarvalhaes.com

As Congressional lawmakers look to expand the E-Verify program to crack down on undocumented workers, businesses have become increasingly uneasy with the proposal.

Currently E-Verify, an online database that allows employers to check a potential employee’s immigration status, is a voluntary nation-wide program. States like Arizona, Utah, and Mississippi have required all employers to use the system, and House GOP leaders are following their lead and pushing to make the system compulsory for all businesses across the United States.

Critics of the program fear that making the program mandatory could destabilize critical sectors of the economy. The agriculture industry is particularly concerned as they depend heavily on undocumented workers for labor and worry that mandating the system could potentially jeopardize millions of jobs in the industry.

Randel Johnson, the senior vice president of the U.S Chamber of Commerce, says, “I have a real mixed reaction from my members.”

He explains, “Some find it workable, and others do not.”

Some businesses have the “the logistical problem of having a computer on [their] construction site” to access the system, while others, particularly small businesses have an “aversion to a new system that will make things more complicated.”

Businesses are currently required to have employees fill out I-9 forms to verify their legal status. But recent audits by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have revealed that undocumented workers are manipulating the I-9 system by providing forged documents.

These documents have been relatively easy to obtain as there is a thriving market for fake Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and other identifying documents.

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the E-Verify system was also vulnerable to fraud and identity theft and some businesses are calling for the inclusion of biometric authentication to tighten security gaps.

Representative Elton Gallegly (R–California), the chairman of the House Immigration subcommittee and proponent of E-Verify, believes that “making [E-Verify] universally mandatory would ease the cumbersome and easily manipulated I-9 process employers now use to screen employees. It would also greatly reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the American workforce.”

According to the DHS website, roughly 1,400 employers are joining the E-Verify system each week.

In an effort to crack down on employers that hire undocumented workers, the Obama administration has been conducting “I-9 audits” in which ICE agents pour through a company’s I-9 forms and other payroll documents. If forms are incorrectly filed or falsified, the employers are required to fire the employees.

Chipotle, the Mexican fast food chain, was recently the subject of an I-9 audit and was forced to lay off hundreds of its employees in Minnesota after investigators found discrepancies in their documents.

According to company spokesman Chris Arnold, Chipotle already uses the E-Verify system at its restaurants in Arizona and the Carolinas and is considering expanding the system to its chains nationwide.

Craig J. Regelbrugge, the vice president of the American Nursery and Landscape Association, does not believe that E-Verify will end problems with illegal immigration and fears that there will be unintended economic consequences.

“Simply put, any E-Verify expansion that comes without meaningful immigration reform would be disastrous for the American agricultural economy,” he said.

He warned that mandating the system “will leave the United States importing food and exporting jobs.”

According to Regelbrugge, three out of four farm jobs are done by undocumented workers and losing these workers would affect jobs upstream as well.

“Every lowly, backbreaking farm-working job sustains three jobs in the non-farm economy,” he said.

“What Congress needs toknow is we have 1.6 million dedicated farm workers, and if they go away, we will lose several million American jobs upstream and downstream. We happen to think that is too high a price.”

Representative Lamar Smith (R- Texas) disagrees with this statement as well as the oft-repeated statement that undocumented workers do the jobs that Americans do not want.

He said, “Critics of E-Verify claim illegal immigrants hold jobs that Americans won’t do. But even in the agriculture industry, where amnesty supporters insist we need illegal workers, 50 percent of the agriculture jobs are held by U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.”

He added, “If farmers really need foreign labor, they can get it legally - we have a guest worker program for agricultural workers that has no numerical limit.”