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Gwinnett Daily Post

January 21, 2010
OPINIONS PAGE

KING: E-Verify not a risk to our agriculture

There is currently much consternation and hand wringing over the fact that the Georgia legislature may actually move to protect jobs by clamping down on illegal hiring with the no-cost federal E-Verify system. But a key component of the story is not widely known.

The argument du jour from the usual suspects opposed to enforcement is that Georgia would somehow lose its agriculture industry if we comply with the federal law making employment of illegal aliens well, you know — illegal.

While the media have faithfully reported on the agriculture angle, the existence of the legal alternative to continuing to hire black market farm laborers who have escaped capture at our borders has so far eluded mention.

It is something called the H2A agricultural worker visa.

This agricultural program establishes lawful means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring an unlimited number — no ceiling! — of temporary foreign workers into the United States.

But the grateful, legal, temporary workers looking for a better life must be treated with dignity and respect. Employers must provide free housing that meets lawful safety and health standards and provide workers’ compensation insurance to workers at no cost to the worker.

The wage for H2A workers must be the same as that for U.S. workers. The rate must also be at least as high as the applicable prevailing wage rate the wage.

The employer must provide either three meals a day to each worker or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities for workers to prepare their own meals. If meals are provided, then the employer may charge each worker a certain amount per day for the three meals.

These requirements obviously make hiring the more “flexible” and desperate illegal labor considerably more profitable. And there is little fear of federal punishment.

An H2A visa is usually issued for a period of one year and can be extended by two one-year extensions for a maximum of three years. Then the temporary workers must return to their home country — making them poor prospects for creating a resentful “oppressed” and “victimized” political constituency willing to march in American streets demanding legalization.

The concept that illegal workers are integral in or necessary for Georgia’s largest industry is complete fertilizer.

Readers may want to pass the H2A facts on to their state lawmakers and remind them that illegal immigration is a direct result of illegal employment.

And that with E-Verify — and courageous vigilance — we have the tools to stop illegal hiring.

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for enforcement of immigration and employment laws. He has been an authorized E-Verify user since 2005.

HERE
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/opinion/headlines/KING_E-Verify_not_a_risk_to_our_agriculture_114331934.html

Marietta Daily Journal

Bill would put teeth in existing immigration law

State Sen. Judson Hill (R-east Cobb) wants to put teeth in an existing law designed to keep public employers from hiring illegal [aliens]. — “The bill’s intent is to help employ Georgians by ensuring that only American citizens are hired on any public works projects, such as constructing roads and government buildings,” Hill said…

HERE

Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press

Five convicted in federal probe of illegal-document ring

…Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said the investigation by agents of U.S. Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations (formerly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) showed that the “document trade in the Hispanic community is controlled almost exclusively by illegal aliens – it is a business run by illegal aliens for illegal aliens.”

HERE

HERE

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My MDJ column today

The Marietta Daily Journal
January 19, 2011

D.A. King: E-Verify enemies and the H2A Ag Worker visa

The Georgia General Assembly will begin the committee process on legislation next week and the budget-crashing crime of illegal immigration will be in the news. But even the most attentive news hounds will only get part of the story.

Many in the media have decided that there are components of the immigration story that should go unreported.

By now, most people realize that most illegal immigration is the direct result of illegal employment.

A reminder: There is an “app” for that. It is called E-Verify and is a no-cost federal database available to all employers in the nation. E-Verify is used to check the immigration status of newly hired employees. Its possible required use terrifies the anti-enforcement mob – both on the radical left and the profiteering right.

Arizona has had an E-Verify law for all employers since 2008. Along with the subversives in the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, another of the groups that have sued to undo Arizona’s E-Verify law is the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

Unless the Chamber of Commerce here in Georgia has already been successful in killing them in the back rooms of the Capitol, there should be one or two bills requiring all employers to use E-Verify introduced here.

The business lobby has already teamed up with the radical ethnic-based illegal alien lobby and started bullying legislators who may be willing to protect jobs for law-abiding workers by stopping the hiring of illegal aliens.

The anti-enforcement coalition has agreed to center the “no-to-enforcement” argument around the fact that Georgia’s largest industry is agriculture. Their ridiculous message: “No illegals – no crops.”

From a recent Georgia Farm Bureau press release: “We oppose any immigration law that discriminates against the farm worker and puts the farmers of Georgia at a disadvantage to farmers in other states. Immigration is a federal issue, not a state or local issue. Agricultural interests must be considered when immigration legislation is debated.”

Translation: “We have been using cheap, submissive illegal aliens for decades and nobody from the Georgia legislature should even consider doing what we long ago made sure the federal government will never do. We are powerful! Don’t even think about a state law that would make it difficult for us to continue to hire our illegals! Other farmers do it!”

Chiming in with the points against enforcement he was sent out with, Jerry Gonzalez, of the Jane Fonda-supported Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, recently told legislators on a Gold Dome fact-finding committee that, “This is a similar moment in history which Georgia faced during the civil rights moment. … Georgia is not Arizona and we cannot afford to ‘enforce the rule of law’ because of our agricultural industry, along with other industries, desperately need immigrant labor in order for them to be successful. Without the immigrant labor, many more jobs would be lost and our state would suffer even more serious economic hardship” he breathlessly said.

By now, there are few Georgians who don’t recognize race-baiting and the endless and insulting attempts to blur the line between real immigrants and the illegal aliens that Gonzalez uses as political tools.

Here is an important fact the Farm Bureau, the ethnic hustlers, the Chamber of Commerce and many in the liberal media hope Georgians will never find out about: the H2A Ag worker visa.

The long-standing H2A agricultural visa program establishes lawful means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring an unlimited number (no ceiling!) of temporary foreign workers into the United States.

But the grateful, legal, temporary workers must be treated with dignity and respect. Employers must provide free housing that meets lawful safety and health standards and provide workers’ compensation insurance to workers at no cost to the worker.

The wage for H2A workers must be the same as that for U.S. workers. The rate must also be at least as high as the applicable prevailing wage rate.

The employer must provide either three meals a day to each worker or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities for workers to prepare their own meals.

The H2A requirements obviously make hiring the desperate, fugitive illegals considerably more profitable. And there is little fear of federal punishment.

It also makes for poor prospects for creating a resentful “oppressed” and “victimized” political constituency for the dangerous political left.

The H2A visa – tell your state legislator.

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – D A King E Verify enemies and the H2A Ag Worker visa

E-Verify Gets High Marks from Employers in Customer Satisfaction Survey

Jan. 18, 2011

Recent GAO report also cites improvements to the E-Verify Program

WASHINGTON, DC.—A recent customer satisfaction survey validates what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has long asserted – that the Obama administration’s commitment to building the E-verify system is the right investment in building a viable tool to ensure a legal workforce in the United States. Additionally, a report about E-Verify – just issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – cites improvements in the reduction of mismatch rates, ensuring employer compliance, and establishing better safeguards for employees’ personal information.

The customer survey evaluated key aspects of the E-Verify program such as registration, tutorial, ease of use, technical assistance, and customer service. E-Verify received an exceptionally high overall customer satisfaction score – 82 out of 100 the American Customer Satisfaction Index scale – compared to the government’s overall satisfaction score. One of the aspects of E-Verify that respondents liked the most was its customer support, which received a score of 89 – based significantly on enhancements to the system made under the Obama administration. Other key findings of the survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of users were likely to recommend E-Verify to other employers, were confident in E-Verify’s accuracy, and were likely to continue using the program.

“The E-Verify Program works exceptionally well, according to employers, and is a very promising tool for ensuring a legal workforce in the U.S.,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “The high overall customer satisfaction score, along with the positive findings of the GAO report, are encouraging. While we are pleased with the program’s successes, we remain committed to continually improving E-Verify and enhancing this tool’s effectiveness for both workers and employers.”

The continued success of E-Verify demonstrated by these reports reflect the Obama administration’s commitment to smart, tough and effective strategies that build a strong foundation upon which immigrants can exercise their rights and responsibilities as Americans. However, passage of comprehensive immigration reform – grounded in principles of responsibility and accountability – is needed to fix our broken immigration system.

CFI Group, a consulting firm specializing in customer satisfaction measurements, developed the survey last July and questioned more than 4,500 random employers who currently use E-Verify. Respondents included new and current users and federal contractors who are required to use the system.

GAO reviewed USCIS’s E-Verify program by analyzing E-Verify query data from 2009 to 2010. GAO reported a significant reduction in the number of tentative nonconfirmations (TNCs), citing a 5.4 percent decrease in TNCs since FY 2007. The report also acknowledged the agency’s improvement in monitoring and ensuring employer compliance with E-Verify’s policies, and offering assistance to E-Verify employers who appear noncompliant. In addition, the report noted how E-Verify has added safeguards to minimize and secure the handling of new employees’ personal information by creating a privacy branch; safeguards that limit both the data collected for E-Verify and the people who can access the data. GAO made a number of recommendations to further improve the program and USCIS has concurred with those recommendations.

More than 243,000 employers representing more than 834,000 worksites currently use E-Verify. On average, 1,000 new employers enroll each week. In FY 2010, the E-Verify Program ran more than 16 million queries.

The E-Verify customer survey is available for review at http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/E-Verify/E-Verify/e-verify-satisfaction-report-10-15-10.pdf. To read GAO’s report, as well as USCIS’s response to the GAO report, please visit http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11146.pdf. See it HERE – bad news, ehh Jerry?

General information about USCIS, E-Verify and its programs and services can be found at www.uscis.gov/everify.

KSAZ-TV — Phoenix

Sheriffs sound off on abandoned border fence project

Phoenix– It was supposed to be the future of border security — 2,000 miles of virtual fence, built to protect the U.S. border with Mexico. — Now that a billion dollars were spent on the project, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announces the program has officially been scrapped. All work has been stopped…