Speech #1040201760

I am afraid. is the practical effect of a national worker verification system. It is lightyears away from a targeted approach. And it is based on the proposition that it is perfectly appropriate to have ID checks potentially required from 98 percent of our population. that which consists of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. in order to root out the 2 percent of our population that Is here illegally. During judiciary hearing consideration of this bill. the junior Senator from Michigan and I offered a bipartisan amendment to strike the worker verification concept from this legislation and replace it with stronger enforcement and penalties for those who break the law by overstaying their legal visas. Although the committee accepted these new provisions relating to visa overstayers. our amendment to strike worker verification proposals lost on a tie 9 to 9 vote. The original nationwide system was later replaced by the socalled demonstration projects. But make no mistake.