Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 3711) which would require all businesses to use E-Verify within two years. This bill would fulfill NumberUSA’s top enforcement priority.
The bill passed by a 20-10 vote with all Republicans voting in favor of the bill and all the Democrats voting against.
In a press release House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who is an original co-sponsor of the bill, wrote, “one way to make sure we discourage illegal immigration in the future is to prevent unlawful immigrants from getting jobs in the U.S. Requiring the use of E-Verify by all employers across the country will help do just that. The web-based program is a reliable and fast way for employers to electronically check the work eligibility of newly-hired employees.
H.R. 3711, the Legal Workforce Act, builds on E-Verify’s success and finally implements one part of the strong enforcement that was promised to the American people many years ago. The Legal Workforce Act does not simply leave enforcement up to the Federal government. In fact, it actually empowers States to help enforce the E-Verify requirement, ensuring that we do not continue the mistakes of the past where a President can turn off Federal enforcement efforts unilaterally.”
Read more on the vote here.
