Rep. Calvert Reintroduces the Legal Workforce Act to Require the Use of E-Verify

Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-41) reintroduced the Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 251, which preserves jobs for citizens and legally authorized workers by requiring U.S. employers to check the work eligibility of all future hires through the E-Verify system.  

“I believe American jobs should go to people legally authorized to work in our country and am reintroducing the Legal Workforce Act to make the use of E-Verify mandatory,” said Rep. Calvert. “Having a mandatory workforce verification system in place is a key component of fixing our broken immigration system that rewards people who break our immigration laws. The Legal Workforce Act is also necessary to protect the wages and benefits of American workers from being undercut by cheaper labor from illegal immigrants. We want and need immigrants to come to our nation to contribute to our economic success as well as their own, but we must also remain a sovereign nation governed by the rule of law.”

In 1996, Rep. Calvert authored the law that created the E-Verify program, the only tool available for employers to voluntarily check the legal work status of newly hired employees. Since then, Rep. Calvert has worked steadily over the years to expand E-Verify and pushed to make it mandatory.

E-Verify, operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is a free system that checks the Social Security numbers of newly hired employees against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to help ensure that they are eligible to work in the U.S. The program quickly confirms 99.8% of work-eligible employees and takes less than two minutes to use. Nearly 1.4 million American employers currently use E-Verify. All federal contractors are required to utilize E-Verify. Currently, 23 states require E-Verify for some or all employers.

Summary of the Legal Workforce Act:

Repeals the Paper I-9 System Requirement - The Legal Workforce Act repeals the requirements of the current paper-based I-9 system and replaces it with a completely electronic work eligibility check, bringing the process into the 21st century. However, if an employer chooses to keep using the paper-based I-9 system, they may do so.

Gradual Phase-In – Phases in mandatory E-Verify participation for new hires in six-month increments beginning on the date of enactment. Within six months of enactment, businesses having more than 10,000 employees are required to use E-Verify. Within 12 months of enactment, businesses having 500 to 9,999 employees are required to use E-Verify. Eighteen months after enactment, businesses having 20 to 499 employees must use E-Verify. And 24 months after enactment, businesses having 1 to 19 employees must use E-Verify. Allows a one-time six-month extension of the initial phase-in period. It also requires that employees performing “agricultural labor or services” are subject to an E-Verify check within 30 months of the date of enactment.

Strengthened Penalties – The bill raises penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants in violation of the requirements of the bill. The bill also creates a penalty for individuals (employees or employers) who knowingly submit false information to the E-Verify system.

Safe Harbor – Grants employers safe harbor from prosecution if they use the E-Verify program in good faith, and through no fault of their own, receive an incorrect eligibility confirmation.



 

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