Cristina Jimenez

Stimulus Money with E-Verify will Hurt, Not Help American Workers

Last week the House Appropriations Committee voted to include an amendment to the stimulus bill—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—that would make enrollment in the federal E-Verify program a condition for receiving funds provided by the recovery package.

The amendment was proposed by Republican Jack Kingston from Georgia, who has voted for the middle-class less than 40% of the time—receiving a grade of an F from themiddleclass.org.

The E-Verify program is deeply flawed. The United States Government Accountability Office and other independent organizations have found that this program is unable to accurately identify U.S citizen and documented immigrant workers. In addition, the program fails to include a way to monitor and prevent unscrupulous employers from misusing the system.

As DMI has argued before, programs like E-Verify don’t help to solve the real problem—an underground workforce that threatens the wages and working conditions of all workers. Using E-Verify would only drive undocumented workers further underground and increase the violation of workplace rights in the labor market—affecting all workers.

Incorporating E-Verify into the stimulus package would not only delay use of stimulus funds, but would hurt American workers.

Cristina Jimenez: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 3:34 PM, Jan 27, 2009 in Immigration
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