Another reason amnesty advocates fear H.R. 2885
Amnesty advocates like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL) believe that an unauthorized alien's history of illegally taking and holding jobs that should have gone to citizens or legal aliens should be viewed as evidence of "good character." Much of the mainstream media has agreed. According to that twisted logic, the more jobs an unauthorized alien illegally works, the more compelling the case for amnesty. This is why the mass-amnesty lobby fears the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2885). The national mandatory E-Verify bill would make it much harder to establish long, illegal-work histories in the United States.
A March 17 story in The Hill, "Rep. Gutierrez uses South Carolina case to criticize Obama on immigration," is a perfect illustration of the media's illegal-employment blindspot. According to The Hill:
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) says the administration's expulsion proceedings against Gabino Sanchez — a married father of two who's been living and working in the U.S. for 13 years — defy the president's stated policy of targeting illegal immigrants who have felonious pasts or otherwise pose a community threat.
The Hill does not say how Sanchez - a citizen of Mexico in the U.S. illegally - managed to find employment in the U.S. for 13 years without a work permit. Instead, his work history is listed along with his marital and parental status as a reason to stay his deportation. The Hill does report that Sanchez has been convicted of nine vehicular-related misdemeanors, but overlooks his 13 year of illegal employment entirely.
Sanchez works in construction and landscaping, where a majority of workers are U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Sanchez works illegally while more than 17 percent of construction workers nationwide remain unemployed. Illegal employment displaces legal workers, drives down wages, and puts law-abiding businesses at a disadvantage. Three-quarters of illegal workers commit felonies (stolen or fraudulent IDs and/or perjury on an I-9 form) to gain employment. The rest are paid under the table. Either way, law-abiding taxpayers are victimized.
South Carolina passed a law in 2008 that required every business with more than 100 employees to run their new hires through E-Verify, but existing hires who work illegally are safe as long as they stay in their jobs. Only a federal E-Verify law like the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2885) can go after existing illegal hires, including those who have stolen the identities of U.S. citizens. If H.R. 2885 had been the law of the land when he arrived a dozen years ago,Sanchez would have had a harder time gaming the system, and the employers who illegally hired him would probably have given those jobs to unemployed Americans.
JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA