E-Verify Legislation Harms U.S. Jobs, Puts Agriculture at Risk

Press Release

The House Judiciary Committee is debating a bill today that -- if passed -- would "devastate the American agricultural economy, resulting in closed farms, a less-secure America, and the mass off-shoring of millions of U.S. jobs," said U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.

The Legal Workforce Act, which mandates E-Verify for all employers in the United States, is strongly opposed by a wide array of interests, including agricultural associations and growers, organized labor, members of the small business community, civil liberties groups, religious organizations, privacy advocates, and immigration reform groups.

While every serious comprehensive immigration reform proposal since 2006 has mandated the use of E-Verify by all employers, it is in the absence of broader reforms to fix our broken immigration system that this legislation will result in billions of dollars in lost government revenue, harm American workers, and stifle economic growth.

Lofgren went on to note that expanding E-Verify absent meaningful immigration reform will also increase the deficit and decrease tax revenues by an estimated net revenue loss of $39 billion over ten years, and provides no protections for authorized workers who lose their jobs in error, or meaningful penalties for employers who do not allow employees to correct such errors.

Despite having introduced the Legal Workforce Act in the past two Congresses, House Republicans have failed to advance the legislation due to opposition by a broad cross-section of organizations and Members of Congress.

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