From our friends at Downsize DC:
E-Verify is "an Internet-based system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA). E-Verify is currently free to employers and is available in all 50 states. E-Verify provides an automated link to federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers."
It is currently a voluntary system. House bill H.R. 2885, however, would make it mandatory for all employers. The result is an even more intrusive National ID System than the REAL ID, against which DownsizeDC.org has successfully fought.
The nominal intent of the bill is to crack down on illegal immigration, even though America has a shortage of unskilled labor and would be better served by broadening immigration law.
And yet the victims of the bill will be innocent, law-abiding employers and employees. For instance . . .
- The Social Security Administration estimates 3.6 million Americans would have to visit an SSA field office each year in order to KEEP their jobs — one of them might be you!
- 73% of businesses employ 10 or fewer people, and it is unknown how many currently lack the resources and technology to implement E-Verify.
- That's why a coalition of national and state pro-freedom, limited government, and Constitutional government organizations sent a letter to members of Congress explaining why H.R. 2885 must be opposed.
Here is a digested version of the objections . . .
- This Act would require each American to ask permission from the Federal Government when hiring or being hired.
- It creates a de facto National Identification System that could grow to include biometrics such as fingerprints, DNA and/or iris scan. This is tantamount to an unconstitutional, warrantless search.
- It won't be long before employers will be required to verify whether employees are delinquent in the payment of federal, state, or local taxes, in compliance with child support or alimony decrees, on a terrorist watch list, or convicted, let alone accused of crime.
- Errors in the verification process will be practically immune from timely legal redress, and in 2009 (under a voluntary system) about 80,000 workers likely received erroneous findings from the system and may have lost their jobs.
- Despite the sales pitch of politicians, this bill doesn't protect employers from criminal prosecution should they employ an individual later proven to be in the U.S. illegally, or who has successfully assumed a fake or stolen identity.
- The loss of jobs will be staggering as employers substitute machinery for employees or outsource employment to avoid the vexations and costs of compliance, as will the loss of tax revenues as jobs go underground — just what we need in today's economy.
- It will create an unprecedented black market demand for fake identities coveted by those seeking employment, particularly for short-term jobs where illegal workers will be long-gone before there is any chance of detection.
- And will make it very difficult for law-abiding victims of identity theft to find work. Once again, this could be you.
E-Verify is a national identification and surveillance system run by the same friendly people who brought you the airport TSA system. It will lead to even more bureaucracy, greater surveillance, and less freedom.
Tell your Representative and Senators to oppose E-Verify.