E-Verify, Birthright Citizenship are Hot Topics During GOP Presidential Hopefuls Debate
All debates have winners and losers, but our 5 Great Immigration Solutions grid was the big winner during last night's GOP Presidential Hopefuls debate in Las Vegas. Two of our 5 Great Solutions were plugged by two different candidates - mandatory E-Verify and ending Birthright Citizenship.
Last night's debate turned personal when Gov. Rick Perry attacked Gov. Mitt Romney of hiring illegal-alien workers at his property several years ago. Gov. Romney used the challenge to plug national E-Verify.
[I]t is hard in this country as an individual homeowner to know if people who are contractors working at your home, if they have hired people that are illegal. If I'm president, we'll put in an E-Verify system ... to make sure that we can find out who's here illegally and not, and crack down on people who come here illegally. ...
... you turn off the magnets. And that's employers that hire people who they know are here illegally.
That's why you have an E-Verify system so they can know that.-- Gov. Mitt Romney
House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith's Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885) is NumbersUSA's top legislative priority. The bill would require all businesses to run new hires through E-Verify within two years. It would also create several triggers that would identify jobs currently held by suspected illegal aliens and require employers to check those employees through E-Verify.
Later in the immigration segment, debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked the Hopefuls if they supported the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to most children born in the United States. Rep. Michele Bachmann referenced Rep. Steve King's H.R.140 that would end Birthright Citizenship by amending current federal law, rather than changing the Constitution.
This is an issue that we don't have to deal with the Constitution. This is an issue that we can deal with legislatively. And there are a lot of Americans that would like us to deal with this issue ... legislatively.
-- Rep. Michele Bachmann
Although Rep. Bachmann is not a current cosponsor of H.R.140, she has cosponsored the bill in the past.
For more information on our 5 Great Immigration Solutions, click here.