AZ Representative Gabrielle Gifford wants to kill the
E-Verify system
SYLVESTER: E-Verify is a voluntary system used by more
than 60,000 employers to check if workers are eligible to work in the United
States. The pilot program is set to expire in November and there is a proposal
in Congress to replace it with a system currently used to track down deadbeat
parents. Backers of the change say more than six million employers already use
that system.
REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS (D), ARIZONA: We see that the E-Verify
system is currently in place,
is cumbersome, it's burdensome and it's
unreliable.
SYLVESTER: But critics insist scrapping E-Verify would weaken
efforts to stop the hiring of
illegal aliens. Among the criticisms, it would
gut state employment verification laws like
the one in Arizona that require
employers check that workers are legally eligible for employment and would
restrict information sharing between the Social Security Administration and
immigration enforcement officials, making it harder to crack down on employers
who hire illegal workers. NUMBERSUSA (ph), which favors tighter controls on
illegal immigration insist E-Verify is reliable and says Congress should expand
the program and require
employers use it.
ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: This is a government program that
works, and yet we're talking about dismantling it and re-creating it in another
agency. It just doesn't make sense.
SYLVESTER: Representatives Ken Calvert and Heath Schuler (ph)
are offering bills that require mandatory checks through E-Verify.
REP. KEN CALVERT (R), CALIFORNIA: People in this country
demand to know that people do not use fraudulent documents in seeking a job.
Right now everybody knows that people are using fraudulent Social Security
numbers in order to obtain work in this country illegally.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: Now the Democratic leadership so far has blocked
legislation known as the Save Act (ph) from coming up for a vote. The Save Act
(ph) includes those provisions that would expand E-Verify. And if nothing is
done within six months then the pilot program sunsets and there will be no
employment verification system at all. Lou.
DOBBS: Well, who sponsored the E-Verify, the new E-Verify
legislation?
SYLVESTER: It's Representative Sam Johnson, also
Representative Gabrielle Gifford, she's also a co-sponsor. There are a number of
other representatives as well.
DOBBS: Let's get everyone's sponsors on our Web site and let
everybody know how they can contact them and also of course Nancy Pelosi, the
Speaker of the House because this is an outrage. What they are trying to do is
to stop the efforts of the local and state level to curtail illegal immigration
in using E-Verify. They are trying to get E-Verify to go away, because as you
reported, it works. This is absolutely shameless what is happening. Is there any
-- is there any sense of shame on the part of any of these people pushing this
legislation?
SYLVESTER: Shame is not something that you see that often on
Capitol Hill; I'll tell you that, Lou. But I do want to mention though in
Arizona where they have made it mandatory for employers to check the worker
status, there has been a difference where you see people are leaving, illegal
aliens are leaving that state and that was the intent of that law.
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much. Lisa Sylvester.
This is also the subject of our poll question: Do you believe
the federal government should expand the E-Verify program and require all
employers in the country to use it?
Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We'll have the results here
later.