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February 17, 2020On February 11, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a proposal (4-2) that would mandate public and private employers use E-Verify, a federal program that checks legal work eligibility, for all new hires. SB 664 (Lee) was amended prior to passage to exempt agricultural employers.
During the committee hearing and in a letter to the bill sponsor, the FCCB outlined its opposition to mandated use of E-Verify. Some of the overarching goals of mandatory employment verification may be meritorious. However, E-Verify has experienced many challenges since its inception, including erroneously identifying a high number of authorized workers and citizens as ineligible to work in the United States.
The bishops have long called on the U.S. Congress to take up and pass federal, comprehensive immigration reform. We would not oppose mandatory expansion of E-Verify if it were part of a federal effort on immigration reform and minimally incorporated: (1) complementary labor and employment protections to ensure that employment verification processes do not become a tool to undermine workplace rights or take advantage of workers' vulnerabilities; (2) expansion of legal avenues for low wage workers to enter the U.S. lawfully and work in humane conditions; (3) addressing employer efforts to misuse employment verification programs; and (4) improvement of the inaccuracies of the E-Verify system.
SB 664 has two more committees of reference. An E-Verify proposal in the House, HB 1265 (Byrd), has not been heard in committee.
