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May 9--WASHINGTON -- With little prospect of overhauling the nation's immigration laws before the presidential election, members of
Congress are attempting to address the issue in a more piecemeal fashion.
Lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills since January 2007 dealing with immigration at least in part. None has gotten more traction than a bill that would force companies to use government databases to verify the
legal status of workers.
The legislation has 152 co-sponsors, including Rep. Steve Kagen, a freshman Democrat from Appleton.
Now, a smaller group, including Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville, is countering that proposal with a bill that would use a different database to check whether potential employees can legally work in the United States.
These lawmakers also want to create a system that would allow companies to confirm the identities of job applicants through background checks and biometrics such as a thumbprint.
"We think we've come up with a good solution that applies 21st-century technology, that looks out for the rights of individuals and that gives employers what they need in order to make sure they have a safe and secure legal work force," Ryan said.
Observers said neither bill is likely to become law this year. But they give lawmakers a chance to show voters supportive of stricter immigration policies that they are trying to do something on immigration.
"It's an absolutely smart move on the part of lawmakers who know the chances for passage of legislation are very slim but the political benefits are very great," said David Wasserman, who analyzes the House of Representatives for The Cook Political Report.
Ryan said he was motivated by the need to have a reliable system that allows employers to check the legal status of their work force. "You have to give people a system that they can rely on and a system that doesn't allow employers to exploit people, too," he said.
An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S., many of them drawn by jobs that pay wages significantly higher than they could receive in their home countries. Illegal immigrants often use fake Social Security numbers to land jobs, and experts said many companies don't do enough to ensure the legal status of their workers.
State-based system
The legislation Ryan supports would create a verification tool relying on a state-based system now in place across the country to garnish the wages of parents who fail to make child-support payments.
Supporters said the system would flag the use of valid Social Security numbers by multiple people, a tactic illegal immigrants often use to obtain jobs.
About 90% of all U.S. employers use the database, the National Directory of New Hires, though every employer is supposed to enter information about its new employees into the system.
By contrast, the bill Kagen supports would force companies to use another system, known as E-Verify, which relies on databases run by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to verify the legal status of employees. About 64,000 companies are using the system voluntarily.
Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), who wrote the bill, said the system is easy to use and allows companies to check out new hires in seconds. About 93% of employees are instantly verified through the system; of the 7% who aren't, most don't contest the findings, he said.
"I have utmost confidence in this program," he said.
A number of states, including Idaho, Minnesota and Oklahoma, are forcing companies who do business there to use E-Verify in some way. Arizona requires all its companies to check new employees through E-Verify.
In other states, companies may elect whether to use the system, and 459 companies in Wisconsin have signed up to use it. They include Cargill Meat Solutions, which employs 795 people at its meat-packing plant in Milwaukee, according to the company.
"It's been a good tool to screen out people whose documents aren't matching up," said Mark Klein, a spokesman for the company, which has been using E-Verify since the pilot program began in 1996.
Company officials signed up for the program as a way to avoid raids by federal immigration agents targeting meat-packing plants in the 1990s, he said.
"It was the right thing to do, but we also felt we needed to demonstrate to the government that we do take (the problem of hiring illegal immigrants) seriously," he said.
Other Milwaukee-area employers have signed up to use the system but have not begun to use it.
"I don't know if it's going to be as helpful as they say it's going to be," said Carol Strzyzewski, human resources director at Sojourner Truth House, a shelter for battered women. The organization has about 60 employees and screens new hires through background checks and other databases to confirm the credentials of its social workers, she said.
E-Verify critics
E-Verify has detractors, including advocates for civil liberties and immigrants, who have said that glitches in the government databases can create a bureaucratic nightmare for citizens and legal residents who can work in the country. The program also has proved unpopular among Arizona companies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has blocked Shuler's bill to make E-Verify mandatory nationwide.
But Republicans have joined Shuler to force a vote on the floor through a procedural move that requires the signatures of 218 members. Shuler has collected 188 signatures, including those of Ryan and Republican Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls and Tom Petri of Fond du Lac. Although Ryan said he does not support E-Verify, he wants a floor debate on the measure.
With momentum building for Shuler's bill, a coalition of manufacturers, homebuilders and human resources groups is pushing for the alternative verification system using the existing state-based databases and biometrics. The E-Verify program is set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn't act.
Those who seek to limit illegal immigration said the push for an alternative to E-Verify was a tactic by large companies that want to continue hiring illegal immigrants for as long as they can.
"I'm afraid what it would really do is just delay employment verification," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "I think the companies behind it know and want that."
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