Rep. Calvert Signs Discharge Petition on Tough Border Legislation

Press Release

Rep. Calvert Signs Discharge Petition on Tough Border Legislation

Yesterday Congressman Ken Calvert signed the discharge petition on H.R. 4088, the SAVE Act introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler on November 6, 2007.

"The SAVE Act is a bipartisan bill that increases security along the border, gets tough on interior enforcement and, most importantly, mandates use of E-Verify to cut off the magnet of jobs that bring people across the border illegally," said Rep. Calvert. "The American people have demanded border security and employment verification: it's time for Congress to deliver."

The SAVE Act, which currently has 141 co-sponsors, including 93 Republicans and 48 Democrats, includes:

- An increase in border patrol agents by 8,000 over the next five years; an additional 1,150 ICE agents, 140 Criminal Alien Program officers, and 250 state and local law enforcement for immigration support.
- A strengthening of alien smuggling penalties
- Expedited removal of and increased detention facilities for illegal aliens
- Authority for additional border infrastructure and aerial vehicles/surveillance equipment.

Strengthened Employer Enforcement: (1) mandates usage of the E-Verify system, which allows employers to make an efficient and accurate check of a new hire's employment eligibility; (2) requires employer/employee notification of Social Security number mismatches and multiple uses; (3) requires establishment of electronic birth and death registration databases; (4) penalizes specified employers for failure to correct information returns; and (5) prohibits employers from deducting from gross income wages paid to unauthorized aliens.

Rep. Calvert authored the E-Verify program, originally called the Basic Pilot Program. From its humble beginnings in five states, it is now a nationwide program. He introduced a bill in the 110th Congress, H.R. 19, to make E-Verify mandatory, requiring the largest businesses to be compliant within one year.

The current system, E-Verify, is web-based, accurate and timely. Employers can sign up through the website at www.uscis.gov/everify and verify that the name matches the Social Security number given on the I-9 form entirely online.

Through E-Verify, participating employers have successfully instantly verified employment eligibility for 93% of new hires to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) database information. Of the remaining 7% that were not verified instantly, less than 1% of those employees contested the results.

There are currently nearly 56,000 employers representing 224,330 work sites, signed up to use E-Verify and at year to date, over 2.1 million queries were run through the program. On average, more than 1,000 new employers are joining each week.

On January 1, 2008, the State of Arizona began requiring all employers in the state to use the E-Verify program. Currently, over 20,000 employers in Arizona participate in the E-Verify program, representing more than 35,000 work sites.

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