More than 1,300 employers at nearly 5,000 work sites in Washington are now using E-Verify. the number of queries in the state almost doubled from 2007 to 2008, and an article in the Seattle Times attributes the increase to growing awareness of the program.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a request to review the Arizona E-Verify law, leaving intact the requirements that all employers use E-Verify or face penalties.
Paul of Montana asks: "Is there any difference between the procedural vote on Leahy's tabling motion on Sessions' E-Verify amendment and a straight vote on the amendment (for a long-term re-authorization)? Would a straight vote have won for E-Verify?" My answer is . . .
We’ve had tremendous response to Roy’s blog analyzing Tuesday’s disappointing 50-47 vote in the Senate with more than 135 comments since it was posted that evening. Only one other blog in our history received more comments, and it dates back to July. If I had to guess, Tuesday’s blog would surpass that blog’s 160 comments by the end of the weekend.
In a surprise move, Sen. Patrick Leahy moved to table Sen. Sessions' E-Verify Amendment, and the motion passed by a narrow margin, 50-47.
Senate Republicans tonight stood unanimously with unemployed American workers in voting for a long-term extension of E-Verify to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs. However, all but 7 Democratic votes were for continuing a series of months-long extensions to keep the future of E-Verify in doubt. And that was enough for a 50-47 majority to table Sen. Sessions' latest attempt to assure states and businesses that the federal government will continue to provide this essential program for opening American jobs for American workers. But in this temporary defeat, we see many signs of winning the battle. I'll tell you the reasons -- and which Senators were the biggest disappointments. . . .
New state laws and the growing fear of workplace enforcement have led to 1,000 new companies signing up per week for E-Verify. Arizona and Mississippi, who have mandatory E-Verify laws, along with several others that have some sort of E-Verify law in place lead the trend, but states without mandatory laws are also signing up at a fast pace.
A Zogby poll found that it is difficult to locate anybody in Nevada who doesn't support the E-Verify program to keep illegal foreign workers out of jobs. Yet, Nevada Sen. Reid has been blocking a long-term reauthorization of E-Verify for months. Friday, he finally gave in and said the Senate can vote on the program, but insiders say to watch out for a parliamentary trick that will block the vote at the last minute on Tuesday.
The Senate will begin voting on amendments to Omnibus spending bill (HR 1105) this afternoon. Because of your activism, Sen. Sessions' Amendment 604 is on the list of amendments to be debated and voted on. Go to your ActionBuffet for specific actions. Your phone calls to your Senators are especially important today to ensure that E-Verify opponents don't kill the 5-year re-authorization by just "running out of time." Call your Senators now at 202-224-3121.
Sen. Jeff Sessions' amendment to extend E-Verify for another five years has made the cut of amendments that will be voted on before a final vote on the Omnibus Appropriations bill. Yesterday, Sen Harry Reid blocked a vote on Sessions' amendment, but because the Senate was unable to get the 60 votes required to end the debate, he's been forced to open the bill back up.
United States Customs and Immigration Services has added the Department of State's passport data to E-Verify to further increase the reliability of system. USCIS said that the enhancement is already reducing the instances of mismatches among foreign-born citizens.
A Utah bill, SB81, passed in March of last year requires public employers and contractors to use E-Verify effective July 1, 2009. It also made it illegal to lay off an employee while retaining an illegal alien in the same job category. State Senator Pat Jones proposed SB113 that would delay the implementation of SB81 for another year, but the bill died in committee on Monday.
The Senate was unable to produce enough votes to end debate on the $401 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill on Thursday. Opponents wanted more time to debate and vote on amendments, which could include an E-Verify amendment.
While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid does everything possible inside the Capitol to limit the use of E-Verify to keep illegal aliens out of jobs, he tells quite a different story to the voters of his state. Here is what he is saying in his letters to Nevada citizens: "I strongly believe that every job in our country should go only to those authorized to work in the United States. This is why I strongly support programs like E-Verify that are designed to ensure that employers only hire those who are legally authorized to work in the United States ..."
The Senate began discussions today on the $410 billion omnibus spending bill passed by the House last week. The House version contained a six-month extension for E-Verify, which is set to expire on March 6.
Carol Swain, professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, has noted in the Nashville Tennessean that Pres. Obama has now promised to lead the way to cure cancer, end foreign oil dependence and guarantee higher education to everyone who wants it. But when it comes to keeping illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs so that unemployed Americans (especially Blacks and Hispanics) can have them, Obama can't seem to lift a finger.
Earlier this week, the House released a $410 billion omnibus package that would extend E-Verify if approved. E-Verify, the federal government's workplace verification tool, is set to expire on March 6, but the bill would extend it to the end of fiscal year which is Sept. 30.
The Indiana Senate passed SB 580 on Tuesday by a vote of 37-13. The bill now moves to the State House for further action, and if passed, the state would join 11 other states in getting tough on companies that hire illegal foreign workers instead of Americans.
An Indiana Senate committee approved a bill that would punish employers who repeatedly hire undocumented workers. The bill now moves to the Senate floor for a full vote.
We now have seen the ROPE swing into action and show its style. The implications for immigration policy are, frankly, terrifying. R-O-P-E is the Reid-Obama-Pelosi-Emanuel power bloc that called the shots on much of the Stimulus Bill with very little say from anybody else in the end. ROPE decided that illegal aliens would be welcomed to Stimulus jobs and made sure that 533 Members of Congress never got a chance to truly weigh in -- or be held accountable.
While most mainstream media outlets are ignoring the fact that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NC) have removed American worker protections from the economic stimulus bill, CNN's Lou Dobbs has not.
Congress cleared for the President's signature the economic stimulus bill (H.R. 1), which excludes E-Verify protections for American workers. The Senate finalized action late tonight after Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the 60th vote needed to pass the bill, returned from his mother's funeral in his state.
Earlier today, Senator Jeff Sessions delivered a speech on the Senate floor attempting to add E-Verify back into the bill, citing studies from Heritage and the Center for Immigration Studies that said several hundred thousand stimulus jobs will go to illegal aliens. Sessions urged a floor vote, saying that E-Verify would more than likely pass a vote in the Senate.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) issued a press release tonight decrying the removal of House-passed E-Verify worker protections from the conference committee report, which could be voted on as early as tomorrow. He notes that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) were responsible. See Roy Beck's blog for more commentary on this injustice.
House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid and the Obama White House were absolutely certain about one thing for the House/Senate negotiating committee on the Stimulus Bill: There was to be no special restriction to keep illegal aliens from getting new jobs created by the bill at a cost of $250,000 to $500,000 each.
Leaders from both the House and Senate began meeting on Tuesday night and will continue to meet on Wednesday to try and reach a compromise between the two different versions of the economic stimulus package. The House version contains two E-Verify amendments, which would extend the worker verification tool for another five years and require all businesses using stimulus money to use it. The Senate version does not contain the amendments.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) moved to prevent Sen. Jeff Sessions from introducing his amendment (SA 239) that would require entities that receive stimulus funds to use the E-Verify system.
My wife and I recently spent an evening assisting more than 600 people in families racked by unemployment and poverty. They were given a hot meal, bags of groceries, bus tokens, coupons and advice/counseling if requested. They needed a band-aid, and we gave them one. But most of all, these households need a job. The majority of U.S. Senators have decided that illegal foreign workers deserve a job as much as the Americans in our soup kitchen, meaning more of these Americans will remain jobless. Can the Senators even see these faces?
The feds' monthly report was even worse than expected: 598,000 jobs cut in January. And, yet, Senate leaders have still not given permission for a vote on a Stimulus Bill amendment that would keep illegal foreign workers from getting jobs created by the massive taxpayer effort. How many Americans have to lose their jobs before they are given priority over illegal aliens and the outlaw companies that hire them?
Sounds crazy but that is just business as usual. While hundreds of thousands of American construction workers are unemployed, businesses across America continue to employ illegal aliens and will be allowed to use Stimulus money to hire hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens. The Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are lobbying the Senate to ensure that businesses can use Stimulus money to hire illegal aliens. Nearly every national Hispanic advocacy group is lobbying the Senate to ensure that illegal aliens have the same access to Stimulus jobs as unemployed Hispanic American citizens. It's a crazy world. Will the Senate endorse insanity or pass an E-Verify amendment?
Denney Walls, owner of Walls & Son Construction in Martinsville, In. is pushing for the passage of E-Verify in the state. Walls told his local paper, the Reporter-Times, that his business is being hurt because of competing companies that hire illegal workers.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA). E-Verify is currently free to employers and is available in all 50 states.
Senators are being pounded from seemingly every direction to keep E-Verify out of their Stimulus bill next week (after the House this week put strong E-Verify requirements in their bill to make sure illegal aliens don't get jobs created by the Stimulus). The anti-E-Verify folks are relying on enough Senators believing arguments that are demonstrable lies. AND THE 2 BIGGEST LIES ARE ........
In a co-authored letter sent earlier today, Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) urged the Senate leadership to include provisions in the economic stimulus package that would require businesses using stimulus money to use E-Verify to ensure the jobs are going to American citizens. The House version of the bill, which passed last night, included an amendment requiring the use of E-Verify, but the current Senate version does not include it.
Despite frantic behind-the-scenes lobbying, the massive pro-illegal-worker coalition did not force a vote on the U.S. House floor Wednesday to strip from the Stimulus bill two strong new E-Verify provisions. But our NumbersUSA Hill Team has heard a number of indications of preparations for closed-door killing of these provisions in the Senate or in a joint congressional/White House conference committee. Our job is to force this fight into the open to find out which Senators (and President) will insist on the right of unscrupulous governments and businesses to hire illegal foreign workers.
