... (asking candidates if they support eVerify) when there are countless other, far tougher questions that they could have asked.
I can't stress just how dangerous this is to the U.S. These people want to be president of the U.S., and they're being asked questions that are far weaker than a candidate for an intern position at Youtube would be asked. The way around that is to support policy debates...
Tom Tancredo has a summary of Texas governor Rick Perry and immigration (link). All sixteen paragraphs point out ways in which Perry supports or enables illegal immigration, here are just the first five:
When I ran for president in 2008, I tried to pressure the Republican candidates to take a hard line against illegal immigration. For this, Perry called me a racist.
When he first took office as...
... which would require the use of eVerify by most workers nationwide. That would presumably make it difficult for companies to employ illegal aliens. However, because it contains some concessions to employers and was written with the input of the US Chamber of Commerce (which supports illegal immigration, see the link), some are claiming it's a hobbled bill that wouldn't be enforced. That point of...
... [2].
5. Vilsack also ran down the eVerify program, at least as a standalone solutiion, saying: "The E-Verify system creates a potential difficulty, particularly for smaller businesses... That's because they'd have to invest resources in equipment and training to participate."
Vilsack was accompanied by Bob Stallman, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who engaged in crops...
... law that requires the use of eVerify and that allows Arizona to pull the business licenses of companies that knowingly hire illegal aliens. Note that the 2007 law and the decision have no relation to Arizona's more recent immigration law. A Los Angeles Times article is here, and links to legal documents are here. Sonia Sotomayor voted in dissent; see her name's link.
Those who opposed Arizona's...
... bad: Barone does stick up for eVerify and doesn't appear to support massive low-skilled immigration. However, instead of reducing immigration across the board, he wants more high-skilled immigration (via a Brookings Institution plan) which would lead to problems similar to those caused by mass low-skilled immigration.
... version of the bill has relaxed eVerify requirements (link):
The Senate added wording Thursday that retains the E-Verify requirement for private businesses with more than 10 employees but says any company found to have committed a "good faith violation" of the mandate would have a 30-day period to come into compliance. The requirement would be phased in in three steps with all employers with...
... also has provisions relating to eVerify, sanctuary cities, Matricula Consular cards, and conducting meetings in English. Whether Daniels supports or opposes those isn't clear, but it's likely he opposes them because they wouldn't be "good for business" if you know what I mean.
[2] The interview is here:
"I think that legislation will be changed," Daniels said in a wide-ranging interview with The...
... require businesses to use the eVerify system with new hires and would also allow police to question suspects about their immigration status. Needless to say, that would cut into the profits of companies that employ large numbers of illegal aliens, and they've responded with an open letter (link):
A group of 270 farmers and other businessmen mostly representing Georgia’s agricultural and...
... Judiciary Committee will be about eVerify. However:
At the same time, he downplayed the key planks in the conservative immigration agenda... He won’t say when his committee plans to tackle birthright citizenship, the policy of granting citizenship to every child born in the country. He doesn’t want to talk about whether he will pursue reducing the level of legal immigration, family migration or...
... be sold as Stark thinking that eVerify is wrong because it might prevent illegal aliens from being hired. That's despite the fact that it's not clear whether he actually thinks that. But, who cares about the truth? Actually trying to find out what someone supports isn't the tea parties way.
The argument Stark seems to be making is that it would be unconstitutional to deny citizens and legal...
... the stimulus plan to use the eVerify system. Reid then seems to make the outrageous claim that no illegal aliens are working construction jobs in Nevada [1], and that's the way it's being presented by HotAir [2] and by the low-wattage "StandWithAZ" group (the video was uploaded by them).
Unfortunately, it's not clear whether Reid was referring to all construction jobs or just those funded by the...
... of years now, and nothing in EVerify is designed to affect the right to work for citizens and legal workers. The European bit is a non sequitur.
If that's not enough, he also says:
But even if you think that illegal/undocumented immigration is a serious problem, E-Verify fails to solve the problem.
Illegal immigration is, of course, a very serious problem. Among many other things:
* it's an...
From Suzanne Gamboa of the Associated Press comes this:
The online tool E-Verify, now used voluntarily by employers, wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time, according to Westat, a research company that evaluated the system for the Homeland Security Department. E-Verify missed so many illegal workers mainly because it can't detect identity fraud, Westat said.
"Clearly it means...
Earlier today, Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced H. Res. 1026, called the "Bipartisan Reform of Immigration through Defining Good Enforcement" or BRIDGE Resolution. It seeks to (press release here, no bill text yet):
* make E-Verify mandatory for all employers, and hold employees accountable as well;
* provide sufficient border infrastructure and manpower to secure and control our borders; and,
*...
The Senate is deliberating passage of a 14-week extension of unemployment benefits. Mitch McConnell wants to include provisions about illegal immigration and ACORN, but Harry Reid - not surprisingly - does not (link):
McConnell is insisting on consideration of an amendment to prevent ACORN from receiving federal funds, and another designed to filter illegal immigrants out of the workforce. The...
... is supporting another program (EVerify) enabling employers to check workers' names against electronic records that are supposed to screen out illegal immigrants.
See the no match summary for the backstory; groups collaborating on the lawsuit included the American Civil Liberties Union and the US Chamber of Commerce.
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler - together with Sen. David Vitter - will re-introduce the "Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act" (SAVE Act). Per this it would:
* Require employers to use the federal government's E-Verify database to make sure they're hiring legal workers.
* Increase the number of Border Patrol agents by 6,000.
* Create a pilot program to increase...
Per this:
The Senate voted Wednesday to require federal contractors to use an electronic employee eligibility verification system and to set construction standards for the fence now going up along the border with Mexico... [the first] was adopted by voice vote after a motion to kill it failed, 44-53. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., offered the amendment, reflecting GOP frustration over the Obama...
... company - which is now using eVerify - has since hired replacement workers who are presumably eligible to work in the U.S. and may include a large number of previously unemployed U.S. citizens. The illegal aliens aren't in such a good position, but they can always return home and press their own governments for reform. That would be the best public policy.
Obviously, the LAT and McDonnell have...
... contractors to verify new hires (using eVerify). But it will eliminate the language requiring them to verify all previously employed workers on the contract.
That means that all the illegal aliens already working for federal contractors can keep their jobs and unemployed Americans will not have a chance at them.
I talked with a former official of the Department of Homeland Security who said...
The US Chamber of Commerce spent almost $10 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009 for all issues combined. The Associated Press enumerates the issues here:
The government's $700 billion financial rescue package and Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, were among the high-profile issues the Chamber lobbied on during the first quarter... The group also lobbied on: union organizing,...
The somewhat fair report from Ned Potter of ABC News entitled "Illegal Immigration: Can Online Database Help?" (link) contains this curious bit:
Few companies contacted by ABC News were willing to talk on the record about their experiences with E-Verify. For instance, the giant poultry company Perdue sent the following statement :
"We are doing all that the law allows to verify each applicant's...
Rep. Lamar Smith offers "Amnesty Pushers Concoct Six Straw Men" (link), a collection of logical fallacies that illegal immigration supporters use. The points raised aren't of much use unless those supporters - such as nationally-known politicians - are confronted with them, and if you can do that on video that could have a serious impact on those supporters' careers.
It includes a section about...
Remember how when John McCain used the cheap, misleading tactic of talking about how he wanted to "secure the border first" and then use that to push for amnesty, and Obama supporters lied and said he didn't support comprehensive immigration reform anymore? Well, now Barack Obama wants to secure the border first and then use that to push for amnesty. Somehow it's different this time.
From "Obama...
... delayed implementation of the EVerify program for those contractors (link). That program lets employers check the employment eligibility of prospective employees, and illegal immigration supporters have fought against it being anything but its current status as a voluntary program. This is the third delay so far, all of which have occured this year. The supposed reason is for administrative...
... topic, Obama is smearing the EVerify system, pretending that it's designed to flag those with Hispanic names when in fact it uses Social Security numbers.
Comparing Obama's remarks to highly similar remarks made by George W Bush is left as an exercise; they'd be a very close match.
UPDATE: There's video of his remarks here.
In November, the American Civil Liberties Union released "Actions For Restoring America: Transition Recommendations for President‐Elect Barack Obama" (aclu.org/transition) listing things they wanted him to do the first day, within the first 100 days, and within the first year. Several of their proposals would halt immigration enforcement to a great extent, pending "review". That "review" would...
A six month extension for the EVerify program was successfully added to the omnibus spending bill, but an amendment from Sen. Jeff Sessions to extend it for five years was blocked through the machinations of Patrick Leahy. Details and a list of those who voted for and against Leahy's procedural issue here; commentary on individual senators is here. Seven Dems voted against Leahy; the three named...
... "to continue expansion of" the EVerify program.
5. Funding to expand the HOPE for Homeowners program (link): 225 million in 2009, 1.375 billion in 2010, and 900 million in 2011, after which it will supposedly stop.
... it shows that the outlay for eVerify would be about $12 billion over ten years. e-Verify would also result in the federal government losing about $17 billion over ten years from the moral hazard of taxation on money that was earned illegally; while a significant amount, the government shouldn't be in the business of profiting from illegal activity.
From this:
A notice published Friday in the Federal Registrar confirms that a program that would require federal contractors to ensure that their employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. will be postponed by 90 days. The E-Verify system, an electronic internet-based system that enables employers to compare the names and Social Security numbers of new employees against a government...
... mean? Does that mean they use EVerify for every employee? And, is the use of that "transitive"? That is, could a company get around that rule by using subcontractors that would then employ illegal labor?
Starting on page 110, a report is mandated concerning the costs of the program on "small entitities". That might be an entree to blocking EVerify later, but it doesn't seem to have a loophole I...
Hundreds of illegal aliens and presumably others were arrested today at Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plants in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and West Virginia (link). The company participated in the E-Verify program and cooperated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The arrests were for identity theft and document fraud in addition to being illegal aliens and/or criminal...