As the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), is gearing up to introduce legislation to make the flawed E-Verify program a mandatory cornerstone of his overall mass-deportation goal. He’d force all businesses and workers to use this mandatory system. Aside from its flaws, E-Verify is also very controversial. In fact, the libertarian Cato Institute calls E-Verify "a cardless national ID."
Rep. Smith told Congressional Quarterly (subscription required) that he plans to introduce the legislation in the near future and predicted that E-Verify “will pass the House and the Senate fairly easily.” (Smith also fancies himself an expert on Latino politics, so we’re not all that confident in his prognostications.)
The Associated Press highlights what’s at stake in the congressional battle ahead. The first line reads:
The agriculture industry fears a disaster is on the horizon if the one bit of new immigration policy that Congress seems to agree on becomes law.
Yes, thanks to Rep. Smith, “The agriculture industry fears a disaster.”
Rep. Smith, joined by Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and Steve King (R-IA) (among others) is committed to passing the disastrous legislation. And these “Three Amigos” are undaunted by the fears that those in the Agriculture Industry have about the “disaster” that could befall them.
America’s agriculture industry relies heavily on undocumented workers. Up to 75 percent of the U.S. agricultural labor force is comprised of unauthorized workers. In addition, according to the Department of Agriculture, for every on-farm job there are about 3.1 “upstream” and “downstream” jobs. That means that deporting an illegal farm worker and sending production overseas eliminates other jobs currently held by Americans.
But that’s not a deterrent to Smith. He would force every business -- including farms -- to use the E-Verify system. It’s not an understatement to say that E-Verify would wipe out much of the agricultural workforce in the United States.
And to Smith, this is also about mass deporting the undocumented population currently living in the United States. He is so committed to his mass-deportation agenda that the danger it poses to a major American economic engine that produces up to $9 billion in economic activity each year doesn’t matter.
Mandatory E-Verify would accelerate the end of American agriculture and force more food production overseas, to the detriment of American jobs and regional economic stability. At a time when a new strain of E. coli circulates in many foreign countries, the prospect of outsourcing more of agriculture production raises alarms about our food safety.
The Associated Press article includes reactions and testimonials from a range of agriculture experts about the dangers of E-Verify. Manuel Cunha, a citrus farmer in Fresno, CA said:
If we were to use E-Verify now, we'd shut down, either that or farmers would go to prison…We've admitted many workers are not legal and if you have to get rid of everybody, where do I go to get my labor? Nowhere. We have to have a work force that we can put in the system.
Last month, during a debate on an immigration bill in the Florida legislature, GOP State Senator JD Alexander, a farmer, strongly opposed his state’s version of E-Verify this year, calling it “flawed."
The problem facing Cunha, Alexander and thousands of similar employers is that few American workers express interest in the back-breaking labor and low wages associated with farm work. Even in this difficult economy, experts agree that Americans are not going to return to the fields to pick crops if we force out 3 million agriculture workers. In fact, as the article points out, last year’s “Take Our Jobs” campaign from the United Farm Workers (UFW) sought to entice American workers to take to the fields – after receiving 86,000 inquiries, UFW successfully placed only 11 American workers in farm jobs.
Despite the publicized dangers of E-Verify to agriculture and American jobs, the Republicans in Congress continue to reject sensible alternatives such as AgJobs legislation, which would give temporary resident status to immigrant farm workers and create a path to legal residency after five years. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) said:
"We're going to have a crisis in agriculture…And while it sounds great to say an agreement (on AgJOBS) is going to take care of it, it's not going to pass.
Of course AgJobs won’t pass if Republicans like Dan Lungren won’t step up and provide an alternative to the Lamar Smith’s reckless vision.
Republicans have it in their power to push for a solution that delivers control of the broken immigration system -- one that works for employers and workers alike. However, Republicans remain insistent on E-Verify, which is destined to create new problems, while making existing problems worse. Instead of E-Verify, sensible Republicans should listen to their constituents and seek out real solutions such as AgJobs and common-sense immigration reform.
The Republican congressional majority came into power promising job creation and deficit reduction, yet when it comes to agriculture and its immigrant workforce, they are insistent on a strategy that will increase the deficit and eliminate American jobs.
Cross-Posted at America's Voice.