HR 2146: Mandatory E-Verify at the Federal Level
HR 2146
HR 2146 (mandatory E-Verify at the federal level) has some favorable elements: provisions for pre-emption from states and localities, regard for good faith efforts, and a phase-in process.
With respect to the latter, agriculture has three years to comply from the date of enactment, but only if they use H-2A. Otherwise they are subject to a phase-in period based upon numbers of employees. Owing to the problems of H-2A, the three year period is needed across the country for agriculture to adjust.
H-2A is the only visa for agriculture. It is unwieldy and bureaucratic, very often not time sensitive, not all of agriculture can use it, physical housing rather than in lieu payments are required, there are no commuter provisions, just as there are no provisions for longer term needs. It is pretty much designed not to work.
We need legal access to a workforce, when domestic labor is unavailable, and that is often the case because of the nature of the work, its location, and the numbers required on a seasonal basis.
Mandating E-Verify across the country without visa reform:
- In the early days it will cause severe economic dislocations. In the early days filling jobs will be difficult.
- In the early days there will be abuses/misuse of the system (remember we have some history in Arizona), which will cause problems for both employers and employees.
- Employees (yes, even citizens) will be hurt unnecessarily and employers will be the subject of lawsuits for both discrimination and violating immigration laws.
- It will cause employees to hunker down – put them more in the shadows – drive them further underground - it will depress wages.
- We will see illegal behavior by both employers and employees – it will create more systems of “under the table and off the books” hiring.
- Congress should provide the funds to make E-Verify even somewhat “fraud proof” – as it is identity theft will be encourage – which is a huge public policy issue and not to mention a financial burden on any number of citizens.
- The first bullet point above will hang around – nagging economic recovery – but we will also see new systems of illegality emerge and overlay the system – these forces of behavior cannot be legislated away – behavior on the ground must be codified and regulated to match reality. We will settle down once again with a huge illegal problem, we won’t know who is in our country, access to legal, timely and reliable labor will persist as an issue, and the pressure will persist for solutions with more breadth.
The Arizona Farm Bureau understands and accepts the forces driving HR 2146, but along with the American Farm Bureau, we cannot support it without some reforms to our visa process.
For more information contact joesigg@azfb.org or philipbashaw@azfb.org
