August 1, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas, CA), Rules Committee Ranking Republican, voted last night to approve H.R. 6633, the Employee Verification Amendment Act of 2008, which extends the e-verify employment verification system administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  The bill passed with broad bipartisan support, 407-2.         

“I am glad that the House came together in a bi-partisan way to extend the e-verify program,” said Dreier.  “I am proud to have voted to create the e-verify program back in 1996 when I supported the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.  We had a rigorous debate at that time about the need to improve the employment verification system in the United States and that debate is as relevant today as it was twelve years ago.  I am disappointed, however, that during consideration of H.R. 6633 we were not afforded an opportunity to have a more substantive debate on the need to cut-down on the proliferation document fraud that plagues our immigration system.”                                                     

A 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the e-verify program is not capable of detecting document fraud.  The flaws of e-verify were revealed when Swift Meatpacking Company plants in six different states were raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in December 2006.  Swift, an e-verify participant, was found to have been employing several hundred illegal immigrants but was unable to distinguish the validity of the documentation presented by those workers who were arrested.

In order to address the need to end document fraud and enhance the employment verification system in the United States, Congressman Dreier has introduced H.R. 98, the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act.  This bill would crack down on identity theft by creating a counterfeit-proof Social Security card to be used for employment verification.  H.R. 98 also provides DHS with the tools necessary to enforce our immigration laws and imposes stiff fines and penalties on those employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

“While I am happy to support this measure, I hope very much that the House Democrat leadership will allow us to have a more open debate about the need to crack down on document fraud going ahead,” said Dreier.  “Unfortunately we were not afforded the opportunity to offer amendments to H.R. 6633 that would make improvements to the e-verify program.  I believe my legislation, H.R. 98, would go a long way toward providing the tools to crack down on document fraud and will address the problem of illegal immigration by ending the job magnet that draws people to the United States illegally.”