CALLS FOR LONG-TERM EXTENSION OF E-VERIFY PROGRAM TO ENSURE THAT JOB FUNDS GO TO LEGAL WORKERS

Washington, Mar 5, 2009 - “Our nation now has 11.6 million unemployed workers, and millions more are working part-time while seeking full-time employment,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Sixth). “While the federal government is trying to fund programs that create or save jobs, we need to ensure that those jobs go to legal workers. According to one estimate, as many as 300,000 illegal aliens could receive jobs funded by the Stimulus Act. The House version of the Stimulus Act included the E-Verify program, but the final version enacted did not. I join in urging the House leadership to include a long-term reauthorization of the E-Verify program, which has a 99.6-percent success rate, in the Omnibus Appropriations Act that is now being debated in the Senate.”

Stearns joined today with other members in writing to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader John Boehner to make sure that the E-Verify program is in the final version of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which will fund government programs in the current fiscal year. The House version of the Omnibus included a short-term extension of the program through September 20, 2009.

According to estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly 7.7 million illegal immigrants are employed in the United States in 2008. These are all jobs that currently unemployed United States workers–both citizens and legal immigrants–could and should have a chance to fill. If the E-Verify program is not reauthorized, this Congress and our President will spend more than $1 trillion of taxpayer money to provide many jobs for illegal workers.