Freedom Watch
Trust but E-Verify
We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws.
For centuries, immigrants have come to America seeking the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some came fleeing religious persecution. Others came for the possibility of a better life. But all were inspired by the freedoms that exist in the United States because of the rule of law.
Throughout our history, immigrants have contributed to American society and helped build the American dream. But today we face an immigration crisis. Lax enforcement of our immigration laws threatens the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that has made America what it is today. In order to protect the American dream, we must enforce our immigration laws.
According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, only 44 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border is under the “operational control” of the U.S. Border Patrol. Forty-four percent is a failing grade. Holes in the security of our borders threaten American lives. In Mexico, more than 35,000 people have been killed in the past five years. Without strong border security, this violence threatens to spill over into border towns, from Brownsville to San Diego. The first promise of the American dream is “life.” In order to protect that promise, we must secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
We must also do more to protect Americans from criminal illegal immigrants. Although the Obama administration has increased the deportation of criminal immigrants, two Supreme Court rulings created a safe haven for dangerous criminal immigrants who cannot be removed. Because these rulings prohibit criminal immigrants from being detained longer than six months if they cannot be deported, federal officials have been forced to release thousands of criminal immigrants into our communities. Tragically, many have gone on to commit more crimes, including murder. That’s why I introduced the Keep Our Communities Safe Act to prevent the release of dangerous criminal immigrants back into our neighborhoods.
The promise of “liberty” for those who come to America is also threatened by illegal immigration. People from around the world come to the U.S. seeking freedom from oppression. These individuals come the right way — they follow our laws and wait in line for America’s freedoms and opportunities. Citizenship is the highest honor our nation can bestow. We should not cheapen it by giving it away to individuals who broke our laws to come here in the first place.
But that’s precisely what amnesty does: it undermines the rule of law. We have succeeded as a nation in preserving our liberties because we adhere to the rule of law. We punish law-breakers in order to protect the freedoms of law-abiders. Amnesty does the exact opposite — it rewards criminal behavior and encourages more illegal immigration.
For many, the pursuit of happiness is also the pursuit of prosperity. Part of the American dream is the ability to provide for your family, have a job that pays the bills, and puts a roof over your head. The last few years of economic uncertainty have made this dream harder to attain for millions of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Twenty-four million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. Meanwhile, there are 7 million illegal workers with jobs in the U.S. We could open up millions of jobs for citizens and legal immigrants if we simply enforced worksite immigration laws.
E-Verify is a program that helps preserve scarce jobs for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. It allows employers to check whether prospective employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. The program is free, quick, and easy to use — persons eligible to work are immediately confirmed 99.5 percent of the time. More than 270,000 employers across the U.S. voluntarily use E-Verify, and an average of 1,300 new businesses sign up each week. I’ve introduced the Legal Workforce Act to require all U.S. employers touse E-Verify. This bill is one of the most significant steps we can take to preserve the pursuit of happiness for millions of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants while curbing incentives for future illegal immigrants.
The U.S. has been and will continue to be a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. And we must enforce our laws to protect and preserve the rights and freedoms that make America so great.
About the Author
Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican U.S. representative from Texas, chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration laws.
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rssg| 10.20.11 @ 6:16AM
Rep. Smith is a strong advocate of border and immigration enforcement but I disagree with him when it comes to the cliche', "we're a nation of immigrants" because that plays right inito the hands of never-ending, mass immigration of the open bordersa crowd, the "professional" Latino ethnic-grievance lobby, progressives/socialists, etc.
Every nation is a "nation of immigrants" if you go back far enough in time, for no one sprung out of the soil. The Founders were not immigrants; even the Pilgrims of the 1600's were not immigrants - they were colonists. Immigrants move to an already established society; colonists create a new society from nothing.
US immigration history has usually gone through cycles of high and low immigration. We have been living under high immigration since the 1965 law pushed by Ted Kennedy. Ever since, the numbers keep expanding, due mostly to "liberalism" - the softness, the unwillingness to enforce laws and rules.
Today with a bad economy and high unemployment expected to last for years, we should reduce immigration, across the board for a good ten years.
Also culturally, the US was and still (barely) is a Judeo-Christian based society. By allowing huge numbers of Latino (Mestizo) "Indians" and Arab/Mooooslims, we are being changed by the Beltway Elite. It won't end until everyone speaks Spanish and there is a mosque on every corner of the USA.
TrueBlue| 10.20.11 @ 12:54PM
Personally I like the Australian immigration policies. If you aren't qualified in a field they require more workers in, you can't become a citizen. Now, how well that is enforced to prevent people staying longer than they tell the customs agents is another matter, but that comes back to actually enforcing the laws your government actually has.
IX-XI| 10.21.11 @ 8:36AM
My conservative doctor wife would dispute your characterization of the Pilgrims as "not immigrants" because they "created a society from nothing" rather than move to an established society.
She is Tlingit (Alaska Native) and her tribe's society still exists, though it is a mere shadow of its former self. The 1620 pilgrims and those who came after laid waste to the already existing society in what is now the northeastern United States. Here in the Susquehanna Valley, the remains of the Susquehannock tribe consist of a few arrowheads and stone hammer heads at the Indian Steps museum, a "cabin" built by a York lawyer who purchased the land that happened to be the tribe's main town before Smallpox killed 90 percent of them.
The rest unfortunately sided with the British and succumbed to George Washington's forces during the Revolution. There are no known Susquehannocks living today.
But that doesn't mean the Penn Dutchies created a society out of "nothing." They did what colonists always do, from Australia to Africa to the Americas: they entered into competition for the country with the previous residents (often descendants of earlier colonists) and overwhelmed them.
Let's at least be upfront about that. My wife is living proof that a failure to control your country's borders can be catastrophic. The groups MeCHA and La Raza make no secret of the fact that they intend to do to the Southwestern U.S. what the Muslims are doing to France and Britain: prevail through demographic conquest rather than force of arms.
They know this works; it's how Mexico was colonized in the first place, as well as the United States. It's how Texas was colonized by a bunch of Western Virginians who came down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and found a vast expanse formally belonging to Mexico but colonized by a very few Mexicans who didn't zealously guard their colonized territory against other colonists. A war between the two was inevitable, just as between the Boers and the English in South Africa.
Mexicans insist the United States "stole" Texas. FACT: the TEXANS "stole" Texas from Mexico--fought a war of independence against that nation and prevailed. The United States did not participate militarily, logistically or politically, though many Americans moved there and participated in the Texas war of independence.
The Texans, now owners of a sovereign Republic, voted to join the United States. So the Mexicans don't have a leg to stand on with Texas. California, Arizona, New Mexico, etc. is another story.
But once again the only claim Mexico had to that territory is some royal grant from the king of Spain, whose ownership of the property was, shall we say...dubious. There were more American mountain men in that territory and they opened the path for the tens of thousands of American pilgrims that would follow.
Fact: if the United States had not "stolen" California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, even Colorado and Wyoming from Mexico, the thousands of Americans streaming into those territories would have wound up fighting for their independence from Mexico anyway and would in all likelihood have followed the same trajectory as Texas. It is the colonization model of the more numerous and vital population overwhelming the less vital existing one.
I have a Mexican-American Ph.D. friend who once asked me when I argued for border security, "Why do you think most of the place names in the Southwest are Spanish?" My wife jumped in then: "And is Spanish not simply another white European colonial language? Did you ever stop to think, Senorita, that ALL of those places had names before they had Spanish ones?" The Spanish speaking Mexicans have no claim other than the claim of the colonist--and we bested them on that a hundred sixty years ago.
Colonization is not inherently evil or good. It just happens--and it has happened to every single square inch of ground on God's green earth. The colonists prevail when the existing population fails to prevent the loss of their country to the colonists. Happens all the time.
If we don't want to be colonized, we must take steps to prevent it.
Foxfier | 10.21.11 @ 7:00PM
You do realize that the Indian tribes came in waves, each wave either pushing the prior one further south or wiping them out, right?
The biggest difference between American Indians and the Pilgrims is that the Pilgrims didn't try to wipe the Indians out.
Colin | 10.21.11 @ 6:08PM
Looking at the numbers while observing the lack of will among Republican RINOS who, daily, attempt to pass themselves off as standing up for America's language, culture and laws, I'm now of the opinion that anything less than complete adherence to bending over and gripping of the ankles will qualify you as little more than a card carrying, anti-Hispanic ... racist.
You doubt? OK, try engaging a local La Raza meeting in a rational discussion on lawful immigration policy. Chances are better than 60/40 that the next thing you'll hear is an E.R. nurse standing over your bed asking: "Do .. you .. know .. what .. your .. name ... is? What .. year .. is .. this??"
What it is -- is a Basic Rule of Survival 1-A: Thoughtful discourse often only works among mobs of three or less. Anything more and your on your own, Wally.
POST American| 10.20.11 @ 6:42AM
-----Nice article ---for 1989.
Meanwhile, Globalist hijacked and all but
collapsed America is awakening to the
full-spectrum reality of 6 decades of
Macy Group/ CFR-Rockefeller cultural
subversion, sellout, aggressive EUGENICS
and highest, very high order TREASON.
PLEASE bring it up to speed------------
Globalism is feuled by unaccountable USURY
----is, by nature, TREASONOUS
---fosters EUGENICS
---and, always, aways, always culminates
in cultural destruction, tyranny and GENOCIDE
in the name of X--speed-ience.
The deliberately, long engineered 'out of control'
immigration farce is just part of the 'age-enda'.
----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012----------
----WAKE UP and WISE UP!
Tim the Enchanter| 10.20.11 @ 8:04AM
Huh?
gearjammewr| 10.20.11 @ 6:44AM
Allow the illegals to enter chattering class occupations like lawyer, media news stars, actor and actress, etc. Let them be paid less and drive down salaries for all. Let them replace union workes as well, then watch the hypocrites go nuts. Primarily, these hardworking folks are bringing down the wages of tradesmen and others who work with their hands. For instance, they will live 2 or three to a room and otherwise accept a lower standard of living than an American citizen who does the same kind of work. They violate zoning laws, driving laws and more. In parts of my state they undercut legal auto salvage owners. They will buy a junk car for a higher price than the legit owner, and then salvage sometimes fairley openly in certaian cities. These are regulation and rule violations the enforcement of regs crazy democrats ignore here in Rhode Island. I can drive along and see the latest layer of government waste in needless jobs-the enviromental policeman-usually driving a spanking new SUV or pickup. Usually behind the wheel is some old fart working on a second pension or a fat broad-the tough nasty illegals would rip these losers a new ahole in ten seconds. it is all quite ugly-but that is what happens when liberals and the democrat machine rules. And, we Republicans must find a way to deal with all of this in a fair, even handed way-not easy.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 8:41AM
gearjammewr,
And sometimes those people live in India. The reason we export our jobs and import illegals is that we haven't figured out how to export our lawns and roofs for service. This is just another form of protectionism.
TrueBlue| 10.20.11 @ 1:00PM
The reason we export our jobs to other countries is because the corporate income tax here is so dang high, and we have mountains of regulations that discourage small business growth. In many cases it has nothing to do with people being lazy, but just the fact that most small businesses can't afford to hire entire legal offices to ensure they're following all the required paperwork; or to pay all of the various employer taxes that keep cropping up, like the incoming Obamacare.
No Name| 10.20.11 @ 1:24PM
Right on Gearjammer. Now what about the Mexican truck drivers that are stated to begin long distance driving into our country today? I don't know about anyone else, but my wife and I didn't have but one child so to make room for more immigrants, let alone ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!! No we elected to have only one because in the 60's and early 70's we heard about the population growth and decided it would be best. I have traveled the US coast to coast, mostly in the East-West lanes and can tell you, there is little legal immigration nor illegal immigration. What it is is massive INVASION by unarmed intruders, that don't want to assimilate, but to take over. Mass migrations by Californians aren't simply leaving their state because of economics only, but because they are being pushed out by foreign invaders. The brain dead monkey crap for brain media that want to discontinue usage of the term 'illegal alien'. Ok. from now on I'll refer to them as Foreign INVADERS. Next thing you know they will be taking jobs from the lawyers and Doctors and politicians ...... OHHh hells fire wait we already have one as president... FbidenK.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 3:15PM
No Name,
So you were bamboozled by Paul Erlich? You will be glad someone will be there to empty your bed pan. Fortunately, the Total Fertility Rate of the U.S. remains at replacement (2.1). Where it isn't, see collapse: Europe, Russia and, within a generation, China. The children are called six-pockets. One child, with two parents and four grandparents. They will be busy with the bed pans.
Darin| 10.20.11 @ 6:49AM
E-Verify has flagged problems with Obamas social security number. E-Verify indicates it may be fraudulent.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?f.....eId=344461
btims| 10.20.11 @ 7:01AM
It may not be nice to point out but let's look at the facts.
Blacks vote over 90% Democrat.
Latinos vote about 70% Democrat.
Asians vote about 70% Democrat.
Arab/Muslim vote about 80% Democrat.
Non-native born, non-white "Americans" vote to REDISTRIBUTE the wealth of white Americans. Why? Because historically, America was about 90% white, so it stands to reason, most of the money is this country belonged to white people.
It's too late. Let's "celebrate diversity and multi-culturalism!"
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.20.11 @ 7:37AM
Illegal immigration has been the official policy of the Democratic and Republican Party for 25 years.
E-Verify is not a bad idea. It's just another hopeless response to a decades long problem
The real problem is the political class encouraged illegal immigration for various reasons and now the U.S. taxpayers will be stuck with the tab.
In that sense, it's just like housing problem.
If you note, there are no easy solutions in that arena either.
NedB| 10.20.11 @ 8:28AM
My wife is an immigrant. We went through hell getting her visa then her green card, but we did it. We followed the laws of the land.
Once she arrived, she practically moved into a school where they teach English as a second language. She isn't fluent but she is functional. She learned to drive here and took her classes and her tests in English.
My wife works hard at a really crummy job, (I"m trying to find her something better), and has bought a new car and paid off the loan 18 months early.
Like most lawful immigrants, my wife detests the border jumpers.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 8:43AM
NedB,
You went through hell, you so; and I believe you. Our system is broken on many levels. However, your wife had the benefit of having a gate to hell to pass through. The border is all but legally closed.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 8:46AM
NedB,
You went through Hell, you SAY... (editors day off).
Melvin| 10.20.11 @ 8:30AM
We are a Nation for foreign citizens from around the world, that saw the United States as an Nation of opportunity and promise of a better life.
My forefathers and my wife came into this Country because the American people embraced freedoms and were damn proud of it, and were not shy in telling the rest of the World that fact.
This Nation is a Nation of mutts, individuals who were unified under a banner, freedom, the rule of law, and that no group of people would be placed higher than any other group.
Aye, mistakes we have made along the way, in this grand experiment, but we are human, and we have acknowledged our mistakes, maybe not to others liking, but we have exercised humility in our proud sort of way.
My wife of twenty-eight years did not come to this Country for dollars, she came alongside me, to live a life without someone knocking our door in the middle of the night to be dragged out, never to be seen again.
I know my family's experience as well as my wife's, is the experience of millions of people and future Americans from all over the World who came to this Country to be left alone, raise a family, and achieve the American dream.
This dream is still out there, as long as this dream exists in one human being, the American experience will continue to survive and flourish.
But this American Experience has a cost, and sometimes it is high, because there are those in the World that perceive the United States of America as a threat. A threat to tyranny, and a threat to enslavement in all it's forms.
This is why we must not be tempted by those forces who wish to divide us along ethnic lines.
Too many Americans of all races and creeds have died in their defense of this Nation. Our enemies weapons are not aimed at Black, Brown, Yellow, or White. Our enemies weapons are aimed at the American Flag that rests upon the shoulder of each and every Serviceman and Servicewoman.
There are those who say that these feelings that I have posted above are the old America, and the old America is dead. I have but one phrase to give to these naysayers. "The hell it is."
As long as I can draw a breath I'll defend this Country from all enemies foreign and domestic. Too damn many of us have died, to just roll over and concede defeat.
btims| 10.20.11 @ 9:05AM
I am not a mutt. I was born here, as were my parents, as were their parents. I'm an American. With all due respect, you seem too enthralled with immigration.
Most Americans want legal immigration reduced and illegal immigrants deported. Remember that.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 9:14AM
btims,
What legal immigration? We don't even let Ph.D. graduates of our universities stay in the country.
btims| 10.20.11 @ 9:41AM
Over one million a year come here, legally (with a visa). Once here, they are entitled to sponsor an unlimited number of their relatives. Used to be a small number of relatives but over time, like everything else, standards are lowered in the name of "tolerance" and now each legal immigrant can cause dozens more to come here. It's called "family reunification" and it's abused greatly.
Why should we let PhD graduates stay here? They are foriengers, here on student visas. If they don't want to go back to their homelands, then their coming here in the first place was a bit of a scam, no? A student visa is a TEMPORARY visa.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 9:48AM
btims,
"Why should we let PhD graduates stay here?"
Because they create jobs!
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 9:51AM
btims,
As I said before, the system is broken at many levels. There is no reason why we cannot secure the border AND eliminate family reunification AND allow guest workers AND allow Ph.D. to stay or immigrate AND keep foreign bombers legally out AND deport criminals.
That's the problem with the discussion. It's a mish-mash or xenophobia, protectionism and security concerns all stirred into the same pot.
TrueBlue| 10.20.11 @ 1:06PM
They were trained here, why not let them stay? At least those people are intelligent and can contribute to society in most cases (very few people from other countries get PhDs in useless degrees). This also has the added benefit of those intelligent people not going back to their home country to provide them with the skillsets to compete with us.
Think about it, if all the best people go to a country to get trained and then never leave, where are all the best people located? Kind of gives that country the advantage over the rest of the world in those particular fields, no?
Melvin| 10.20.11 @ 10:17AM
Where did your parents, parents come from and why did they come here?
Probably the same reason my parents, parents came here. I merely used the term, "Mutt." to emphasize, that many people from many Nations came to this Country, and unified.
There is no Country on this Earth, that has the success that we have had as Americans.
I don't want to get into th minutia of the word, I was just making a point.
Am I enthralled with immigration?????? Hmmm. people have the freedom to come and reside here, and people have the freedom to get the hell out, if it so choses them.
TrueBlue| 10.20.11 @ 1:07PM
I wish more of them would gtfo instead of trying to change the country into something it's not and was never meant to be. I much prefer the USA to the USSA.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 8:54AM
E-Verify claims to solve a problem. Ten years ago, when I picked up a contract consulting job, I had to drive across town to personally present my passport in order to fulfil the employability requirement. E-Verify, no doubt, will be easier.
For those who don't lean toward trusting the government by nature, let me observe that E-Verify is a license to hold a job. Am I the only one who worries what this will morph into? How long before someone decides that it should include the registry of sex offenders in order that licensed day-care providers are protected? Great idea! Then we don't want ex-cons working working in secure areas of airports. Maybe next, those with SEC violations to keep them from re-entering the banking industry.
Remember when the Social Security number was not supposed to be used for identification? Trust but E-Verify, do not belong in the same sentence.
Matthew| 10.20.11 @ 10:45AM
E-Verify may help stop illegal immigration but it also makes everyone have to get the federal governments permission to work. Why should the federal government have control over this area of our lives? We are slowing watching our freedoms being washed away.
buckeyeman| 10.20.11 @ 11:22AM
The federal government already has control over this through the social security laws. Employers are required to remit payroll deductions to the government. E-Verify is a tiny addition to what employers are already required to do.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 12:06PM
buckeyeman,
Everything the government does is incremental. Do you think we could have all but banned smoking all at once? We have expensive airbags because we were promised that passive-restraints would make active restraints unnecessary and now we have a federal "click-it or ticket" program. Entitlements always start small. Income tax was originally only for the rich. The list is endless.
buckeyeman| 10.20.11 @ 11:20AM
I'm reprinting a post of mine from a few minutes ago in the comments section of "Romney's Lawnmower Problem" at the top of today's articles. We need to remember that our "immigration" problem is not the same thing as our "illegal alien" problem. Illegal aliens are NOT immigrants, they are trespassers. Anyway, here's my post:
Here's MY conservative plan to deal with illegal aliens (a completely different subject from "immigration")
1. Make it a felony to knowingly enter or remain in the US illegally. Require brief but mandatory incarceration (three months, perhaps). Use the incarcerated to clean up the trash their confreres have left on our southern border.
2. Require all who are presently in the country illegally to register and receive a biometric photo ID card within 90 days. Disney World uses a thumbprint ID system for its ticketing which is fast, cheap, and very accurate(anyone without at least. Failure to register involves a higher degree felony with longer incarceration. Those who decide not to register for whatever reason have 90 days to vamoose.
3. Those who register according to the law will then be granted a period of time (perhaps one to three years) to self deport. This is highly compassionate and allows these folks to get their affairs in order.
4. Establish a GUEST worker program for BRIEF entry (six months) into the US with a mandatory three month return to their home country before applying for another guest worker permit. Only workers with pre-arranged employment will qualify and only the worker (no wives, children, cousins, etc) and permits can only be applied for in person and in the individuals home country.
Use the same type of biometric photo ID for guest workers and require employers to e-verify with penalties for those who don't. US citizens would not need any more ID than is currently required. Why should I carry a "national ID card" simply because aliens have chosen to enter my country illegally?
5. Legislate so that only children of permanent legal residents will be eligible for automatic US citizenship. This probably could be done without changing the 14th Amendment.
6. Require a portion of guest workers' pay to be used for health insurance for emergencies only (remitted by their employers, not the employees). They can return to their home countries for elective treatment and ER's here are required to treat all comers anyway. Guest workers would not be eligible for any other federal or state assistance programs.
Our experience in Arizona and now Georgia informs us that illegal aliens are quite aware of the US laws which they violate daily and are quite mobile. Self deportation is simple and cheap. Building a fence will never work as long as there is no serious enforcement of internal immigration laws.
Notice the absence of fencing in my plan. Why? Because it won't be necessary except in limited areas where it already exists. "Catch and Release" is our current problem. Put some teeth in our laws regarding illegal entry and enforce them and the problem is solved.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 12:13PM
buckeyeman,
These are not entirely unreasonable suggestions. It's interesting to note that your suggestion #2 (without the biometrics) bears a startling similarity to the Z-visa attempt to identify who is here. Bush was excoriated for it.
On the other hand, your suggestion that registration leads to deportation while failure to register leads to incarceration may well result in no one registering.
Also, if illegals will be required to have biometric ID, how will you tell the unregistered illegals without it from the citizens without it? I guess we will ALL need to get biometric IDs, right?
Dave| 10.20.11 @ 11:27AM
Rep. Lamar Smith,
First - The Border Patrol was reduced by government. If you want more protection then stop taking them off the front line, untie their hands, give them more resources to enforce the laws of the U.S.
Second - ANY illegal immigrant is already a criminal. It is enough that they broke the law to enter the country - they don't need to commit more crimes once here to be considered "criminal" or have a record in Mexico. When you folks in Washington stop playing tiddly-winks with words and glossing over issues in order to push your agenda then maybe the public will trust you. Until then - you're criminals too.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 12:36PM
Dave,
Before you get too wrapped around the axle, ask yourself how many felonies you have committed, today. The thesis of Harvey Silverglate in "Three Felonies a Day," is that is the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. Sanctimony is really for the truly pure.
Redstateboy| 10.20.11 @ 11:29AM
How do parents, here illegally, teach their children to be law abiding good citizens?
Anyone else see the contradiction?
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 12:03PM
Redstateboy,
Nope! It's the stealing bread because you're starving problem. Can you not see that people are compelled by circumstance? It's the stuff of literature.
Marvin R. Mark, MS, PhD, DMD | 10.20.11 @ 1:03PM
If an illegal employee procures and uses a fake ID, perhaps using a real social security number from a deceased person or even another living person, is it likely that E-Verify will detect the fraud?
TrueBlue| 10.20.11 @ 1:18PM
Only if every US citizen has their fingers scanned into a national database. Contrary to Hollywood movies, copying someone's fingerprint is not that easy to do.
Sadly then you get into the territory of having a national registry and the invasion of privacy that creates. At the same time, it would lead to some crimes being more easily solved since everyone would be registered, not just criminals. On the flip side, it could be used to more easily frame someone that was consistently at a location if the person committing the crime wore gloves.
Ups and downs to every solution, it's a matter of finding balance. Personally, since every military member is already required to get their thumbprints registered I don't have much issue with making it a national requirement. When the people defending our country and protecting our freedoms are required to do something so simple, it really shouldn't be an issue for everyone else.
Foxfier | 10.21.11 @ 7:04PM
Perhaps an opt-in security option to prevent identity theft, pick a thumb?
That would remove the issues of a gov't ordered collection of evidence on presumably innocent people.
fwb| 10.20.11 @ 1:15PM
Don't let PhDs stay?
Why should they? If one is serious about improving the world, one should require that ALL immigrants who come here to be educated return home to work on improving things there.
Why should the US brain-drain the world? Greed.
FWIW: The feds have no Constitutional immigration authority. Immigration is a state power. The feds were ONLY given authority "to make an uniform rule of naturalization", NOT to naturalize, not to control immigration. Each state should be manning its own borders because the feds have no authority to do so. Just more examples of how wrong things are and how far we are from a Constitutional government.
John Navratil| 10.20.11 @ 3:04PM
fwb,
You first statement is a silly conflation of sentiments. Improving the world has absolutely nothing to do with returning a Sudanese to a mud hut or an Iranian to Natanz. If someone wishes to contribute to the betterment of the U.S., "should that person be denied?" is the question.
You second argument is interesting in that Article 1, Section 8 specifically regulates commerce between the states and foreign nations and that therefore, under the 10th Amendment, the issue of immigration devolves to the States. If so, the entire immigration law should be discarded.
I prefer to think that, like defining marriage between one man and one woman, the issue of immigration simply was not on the radar. We didn't have any laws restricting immigration until 1875 to restrict "coolie" labor. Other xenophobic restrictions followed other waves and is following the Mexican immigration, today.
Imagine New Mexico under the 10th amendment restricting immigration into the state from Texas. Think that would pass constitutional muster? Perhaps Florida should permit Cuban immigration despite Congress authority to control commerce with Cuba results in its embargo.
It would be quite impossible for New Mexico to restrict immigration from Texas or Cuba if Louisiana didn't, don't you think?
Smirking Weasel| 10.20.11 @ 2:11PM
Smith is a disgrace and a great example of why the Republicans are useless and in no way to be preferred to Democrats. What a cowardly shill.
Oldefarte| 10.20.11 @ 3:37PM
Wait, since the US Justice Department has legally sued individual states which legislated their own immigration laws establishing the E-verify system as a check upon illegal immigration, does this mean that the nation's departmental legal guardian is therefore operating on a partisaned policial basis, instead of applying the legislated laws of this country??????????????????????????
Tammy| 10.20.11 @ 6:27PM
What I cannot get behind is the idea that illegal immigrants are taking jobs that Americans want. As far as I am aware, they are taking jobs Americans don't want. Jobs such as field worker and dishwasher/bus boy are as open to Americans to take as they are to illegal immigrants, but I don't know any Americans who want those jobs. They don't pay well, the work is hard and they don't come with benefits. So any arguments around dealing with illegal immigrants that involve saying they are taking jobs away from those here legally don't make sense to me.
GrimmTale| 10.23.11 @ 3:40PM
Tammy -
Really? American's don't want these jobs? YES THEY DO! How high and mighty has this country become; to think these jobs are "beneath" hardworking Americans? This country was built on hardworking AMERICANS who did whatever job they could in order to put food on the table for their family. Frankly, as a hardworking American, I'm insulted by your comments.
caroline | 10.20.11 @ 7:06PM
California has banned employers from using e-verify. Will the federal legislation override this state law?
POST American| 10.20.11 @ 11:35PM
------------------------A POEM---------------------------
AS that FUKISHIMA fallout goes into
its 8th month of mingling with the
CHEM-trails that DON'T exist ---time
for a touch of Japanese haiku
---Sitting sipping lattes
-------in Tower number 2
------Worshipping our wreck-dom
------------is NOW coming TRUE!
Delaware Bob| 10.21.11 @ 8:33PM
Let's get mandatory E-Verify Passed! It's the very best tool we have to free this country of the ilegal aliens.
GrimmTale| 10.23.11 @ 3:34PM
After reading through (most of) these comments/replies, I find there is really only one very easy solution....enforce the already standing Federal Immigration Law...PERIOD. No need to further any other discussion, plan, strategy, etc. It's ridiculous to pick and choose Federal Law and attach "options" to it.
How has this become a debate? Abide by the law or suffer the consequences of deportation, incarceration; whatever the law dictates (this is why we have Federal Law), you abide...it's really very simple.
Oh, I forgot, we (as a nation) must now be tolerant, and allow others (non American) to interpret and enforce our laws.
So, until our govt gets back to enforcing Federal Law, we're all in limbo here.
DHS is forced to show border is secure/all is well numbers in order to ram Obama's Amnesty Bill down our throats. Game Over, consider the already millions of illegals here in the USA as our new legal immigrants, it's a done deal and we're the ones with egg on our faces.
Dried Fruits | 11.25.11 @ 2:54AM
they buy when the coast appears to be clear, when valuations are high and expected returns are low.