Congress Rejects Key Enforcement Amendments as Part of DHS Appropriations Bill

Details are beginning to emerge about the conference report for the Fiscal Year 2010 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. FAIR has just learned that the House-Senate conference report contains just a three-year extension of the E-Verify program, the critical enforcement tool that allows employers to confirm that new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States and are not illegal aliens. The Senate had adopted an amendment offered by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to enact a permanent extension of E-Verify but the conferees rejected this approach. When it comes to E-Verify, we know that 140,000 employers are already using E-Verify. In fact, 1 in 4 new hires nationwide will be verified as work eligible this year alone and 12 million queries will be run through E-Verify this year alone. These statistics should speak to how important E-Verify is to protect American jobs. Despite this, Congress has made a conscious decision to reject a permanent extension of E-Verify.

Details are also emerging about other provisions that were in the Senate passed DHS bill, including another part of the Sessions amendment to codify the federal contractor rule; the DeMint amendment to ensure construction of double-layer fencing for the border fence; a Grassley amendment to codify the ability of employers to check existing employers work status with E-Verify; and the Vitter amendment related to preserving the "no-match" rule which notifies employers when employees aren't using a Social Security Number that matches their name. Our sources inside Congress are advising us that each of these provisions will NOT be part of the final bill. Accordingly, it appears that Congress is including E-Verify in attempt to do the bare minimum to fool the American people into thinking that this Congress is serious about immigration enforcement.