Speech #1040191277

It would be irresponsible of us not to provide American employers with this type of support. Under current law. an employer is required to see two forms of identification and fill out the 19 form. An employer can comply with this and still unknowingly hire an illegal alien who presented fraudulent documentation. This employer can face thousands of dollars in fines from employer sanctions even though they followed the correct procedure for verifying eligibility. Their only mistake is not being able to detect counterfeit identification. The unfortunate consequence of this uncertainty under our current system. is that an employer may not want to take a chance on hiring an individual with a foreign sounding name or appearance for fear of hiring an illegal alien. Because this amendment requires the employer to verify eligibility for every employee. it removes the incentive for employers to treat applicants differently because of their appearance or surname. While I do not believe this is the perfect fix to our illegal immigration problem. I do believe that it takes a big step in the right direction. A pilot project. try it. test it. experiment with it. see what works. see what does not work. Junk that does not work. but try it before we mandate it nationwide. but a voluntary system. as has been said. will not work. I also believe that we are going to have to address the counterfeiting of breeder documents. such as birth certificates. to insure that an employee is eligible to work. Without a worker verification system in place with adequate resources. we will not be able to put a dent in our illegal immigration problem. I urge my colleagues to support employers and oppose illegal immigration by voting for the GalleglyBilbraySeastrandStenholmBeilensonFrank amendment.