E-Verify measure killed

[Jeanfromfillmore]

E-Verify measure killed
Would have required employers to check residential status of new hires
Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2010
A Senate committee yesterday killed legislation that would have required all Colorado businesses to use a federal database to verify the legal residential status of new hires.
For Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, the fifth time is not the charm. That’s how many times the anti-illegal immigration crusader has attempted to pass legislation that would require Colorado employers to use the federal E-Verify system. The online system checks the immigration and residential status of all potential new workers in seconds.
But the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee killed the legislation on a 2-3 Democratic party-line vote. The vote came after hearing testimony from both sides of the aisle. Business groups opposed the measure because they felt it would place an unfair burden on them. Some Colorado residents came out in favor of the legislation, arguing that undocumented workers are taking their jobs and killing their dreams.
Schultheis hoped that he would be more successful this year given the current state of the economy. He said Senate Bill 33 would have helped with the state’s significant unemployment situation, as well as the state’s severe budget deficit, arguing that both issues are inter-linked.
Passage of this bill is going to help many of our very own constituents who have lost, or will lose their jobs over the next months and quite possibly years, find work, said Schultheis.
But business owners and groups lined up to protest the legislation.
Travis Berry, a lobbyist representing the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, raised concerns over the integrity of the E-Verify system, as well as the administrative burden it would place on employers.
I really don’t see the value of this system until it is made to a higher standard where more names are accurate and the system has greater integrity, said Berry.
Hans Meyer, political coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, spoke of potential misuse of the E-Verify system. He said the debate should be about comprehensive immigration reform, not just one aspect of it.
Passing this bill at this point for this state is improvident public policy because it’s not tethered to a larger discourse around immigration reform or encompasses a package that addresses an undocumented population and enforcement of the borders, due process protections, as well as how and when and what any sort of employment regime can and should look like, said Meyer.
Meanwhile, former Congressman Tom Tancredo, also an anti-illegal immigration crusader, is working on a ballot initiative for this year that would require all Colorado businesses to use E-Verify to verify the legal residential status of new hires. The initiative would require the state Legislature to mandate that businesses use the E-Verify system.
Supporters say undocumented workers are taking their jobs at a time when the economy is poor and jobs are needed.
SB 33 would be a step in the right direction to ensure that the jobs are going to legalized citizens of this state, said Pam Williams, who identified herself only as a Colorado resident and testified during the Senate hearing yesterday. We are looking to you, our elected officials, in protecting our dream that we have in owning a home for our families and ourselves, to put food on our tables for our families, to send our kids to school to get a proper education that will give them the basis and the foundation to lead our country into the next century Ń we cannot do that if we continue to turn a blind eye to the illegal citizens that are illegally residing in this state and taking our jobs away from us.
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=7516