Hugh Hewitt interviews incoming House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) on the committee’s priorities in the 112th Congress. The committee has jurisdiction over immigration, which takes up much of the conversation. Still, jobs will be the focus, Smith says:

LS: I…we’ll have to see. Again, that, like the other issues you’ve mentioned, that’ll be sometime in the future. The priority is going to be on job creation. And let me come back to that for a minute.

HH: Please.

LS: Because you had this entire flurry of bills that were passed in the waning days of this lame duck session. And not a single bill was passed, after all that flurry of activity, after all those days of voting, after all the posturing by the Democrats, not a single bill that was passed is actually going to create new jobs. And I think the American people wanted us to create jobs, they want us to rein in government spending, address deficit reduction, get our economy under control where it’s growing again. And so all the hearings that we have on the Judiciary Committee, and the immigration subcommittee is just one of my five subcommittees, but every single subcommittee is going to be having hearings and oversight on creating jobs. And that’s why we’ll have an oversight. For instance, on the immigration subcommittee, on e-verify. And that’s the system whereby employers can very quickly in a few seconds determine whether it’s likely somebody who has applied for a job is legal in the country or not. That’s why we’re going to have a hearing about the Obama administration’s almost abandoned worksite enforcement. It’s down 70% in the last two years as far as the efforts by the administration to actually make sure that illegal workers are not working in the United States, and that we save and protect those jobs for American citizens. So anything that has to do with jobs that we can save or create for American citizens, and for legal immigrants alike, that will be our focus on the Judiciary Committee.

We get what the Congressman is talking about: The high-profile issues of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the 9/11 Zadroga Health and Compensation Act, and the START agreement with Russia were not jobs bills. The Senate failed to act on the Miscellaenous Trade Benefits legislation, a proven jobs creator.

But the tax package, which prevented higher taxes hammering employers, and the reauthorization of the AMERICA Competes Act and its R&D and educational provisions, will do much to improve the climate for employment. The lameduck session of Congress did do some good.

Not every worthy piece of legislation has to deal with jobs, and at times, invoking “jobs, jobs, jobs” starts to look strained, no matter how popular the political theme is.

If the economy is the priority, the best thing the House Judiciary Committee could do would be to ensure the rule of law and prevent any worsening of the damaged and expensive civil justice system that burdens employers. Chairman-elect Smith’s emphasis on oversight hearings fits right in with those goals.

The NAM is a member of the Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce, which last week joined with the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. in filing an amicus brief in a legal effort to overturn an Oklahoma statute requiring employers to use the federal employment verification system known as “E-Verify.”

The HR Initiative filed its amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in support of a suit filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. From the news release:

“A patchwork of state and local laws mandating participation in the flawed E-Verify system is not in the national interest, yet that is just what is happening today,” said Mike Aitken, Director of Governmental Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “Ten states presently require the use of E-Verify for some or all employers, yet the requirements are not consistent, creating an increasingly difficult environment for multi-state employers.”

The amicus brief is available here. For more on E-Verify see the NAM’s toolkit here, and the contractors webpage here.

From Congress Daily, republished at Government Executive:

Nearly a dozen corporate and nonprofit organizations sent House leaders a letter Wednesday seeking congressional action to overhaul an electronic system that companies can use to verify the legal status of their workers.

The groups are seeking the changes as Congress acts to reauthorize the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify program, which was established as a test program for companies to query employee names against federal databases to confirm citizenship and legal status.

“We do appreciate that Congress will need to provide a temporary extension of the pilot program,” according to the letter, which was signed by groups ranging form the National Association of Manufacturers and National Association of Convenience Stores to the Association of American Universities and the Society for Human Resource Management.

“However, Congress must not extend the program for longer than three years and must require that the current pilot employment verification system be improved,” they wrote in the letter, which was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

A copy of the letter is here.

Secretary Chertoff and the folks at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are continuing their public relations campaign promoting E-Verify and increased immigration worksite enforcement. In the Secretary’s latest blog post from July 9, he attempts to separate fact from fiction about the DHS and Social Security Administration’s employment verification program. However, check out item #5 which starts out with, “E-Verify is a proven tool currently used by more than 73,000 employers nationwide, with another 1,000 employers enrolling every week. I’d venture to say that if the system didn’t work or was riddled with errors, very few employers would want to use it.”

Let’s explore what is wrong with this logic. There are approximately seven million employers in the country. Seventy-three thousand enrolled employers only represent 1.04% of all employers. If a manufacturing company made a consumer product that only 1% of the population wanted, that would be considered a big flop. Employers are finding problems with the system, which is why very few employers want to use it.

And on that point about 1,000 employers signing up each week – they are not signing up by choice. Many have been forced to enroll due to new mandates by state governments. Prior to these mandates, the program had a total enrollment over a decade that was less than 30,000 – hardly a groundswell of support and buy-in from the employer community.

As to the rest of point #5, check out this podcast from Cato where they have begun to examine some of the details behind those tentative non-confirmation numbers. Let’s just hope someone from DHS listens to it too.

Last week, President Bush issued an Executive Order that effectively requires all federal contractors to enroll in and use E-Verify as a condition of doing work with the federal government.

Subsequently, the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and NASA issued a joint proposed rule in the Federal Register to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to comply with the Executive Order.

Let’s examine the proposal. No arguments in the beginning, as the proposed rule states:

[One] of the Government’s primary responsibilities is the enforcement of the immigration laws of the United States. It is appropriate to ensure that Government contractors and subcontractors abide by the immigration laws that the Government enforces. In 1986, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to prohibit the hiring or continued employment of aliens, knowing that the aliens are unauthorized to work in the United States.

Most employers would agree as they want to obey the law and be in compliance.

Continuing, you get to this section: 

The E-Verify System is expected to help contractors avoid employment of unauthorized aliens and will assist Federal agencies to avoid contracting with companies that knowingly hire unauthorized aliens. This enhances the Government’s ability to protect national security and ensure compliance with the nation’s immigration laws … It also protects U.S. workers…

Now we have a problem.

E-Verify does not help avoid employment of unauthorized aliens. The system only checks whether a Social Security number is valid, not whether the individual who presents the information is that actual individual.  I can steal your information and get real-enough looking information documents, and I will sail right through E-Verify’s system. 

This is exactly what happened in the Swift & Co. raids that took place over a year ago.  Although Swift was participating in E-Verify and had screened all their workers through the system, ICE raided their facilities and rounded up their workers.  Many had used legitimate, stolen identity information.  Unauthorized aliens were easily making their way through E-Verify exposing one of its major flaws – it does not prevent identity theft.  And on that last piece about protecting U.S. workers, an expansion of E-Verify is likely to increase ID theft, hurting U.S. citizens.

Not only may the new requirements drive up ID theft rates, but DHS wants to use the system to keep tabs on law abiding citizens. Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX) said it succinctly during a hearing before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee by stating, “An agency responsible for tracking terrorists and securing our borders should not be keeping tabs on when and where U.S. citizens work. Yet the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is building databases and maintaining data on the work history of American citizens and American employers”

In other words, in order to start a new job, you’re going to have to be cleared by a law enforcement agency, and they’re going to be keeping track of your employment history. It may be 2008, but E-Verify looks a lot like 1984.

We’re supportive of having a system that helps prevent employing unauthorized workers and protecting employees, but that system must be effective, efficient, and reliable. E-Verify meets none of those criteria, and it is definitely not ready to be forced onto anyone, starting with government contractors. The NAM and our coalition partners in the HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce have been working to develop a better system for verifying an employee’s work status.  In the meantime, take a look at the proposed rule and send in comments.  They’re due by August 11

Heath Weems is the NAM’s Director of Education and Workforce Policy.

From today’s New York Times:

President Bush has ordered federal contractors to participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic system for verifying the immigration status of their workers, greatly expanding the reach of the administration’s crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

An executive order, signed by the president on Friday and announced on Monday, requires federal contractors to use the system, known as E-Verify, to check immigration status when they hire new workers or start work under government.

• Commentary from Mark Krikorian, a supporter of limited immigration and stronger enforcement of current laws.
• The El Paso Times finds two local contractors who say, no problem. 
•  South Coast Today (Massachusetts) reports that Eagle Industries, the Missouri-based military equipment manufacturer, will not have to make any changes to comply with the new order.
• The ACLU is unhappy, claiming enforcement will encourage more identity theft.