E-Verify is Good for All Industries (Including Farming)



E-Verify, a government-run, Internet-based system that cross-checks names and Social Security numbers and spits out mismatches, has been in use since the late 90s and many states have been recently using it to validate whether employees are legally allowed to work in the U.S.

The farming industry won’t be immune to having to use E-Verify for seasonal manual labor, and as highlighted in this article on Philly.com, many farmers are up in arms about it. In the article a Pennsylvania farmer said that only migrant workers have the skills and experience necessary to farm and that no domestic workers would want to do this type of work.

The dire predictions made by farmers forced to turn to only legal workers are, of course, self-serving. We heard many of the same complaints from Southern plantation owners who wailed that the end of slavery would result in doom for the cotton farms. Instead, the end of slavery gave impetus to the adoption of mechanized cotton harvesting and the agricultural interests thrived.

FAIR has consistently professed that domestic workers would take farming jobs if paid a decent wage. These were jobs that Americans used to do. My own experience was occasionally working at a sod farm for spending money while in college, and it was indeed back breaking work but also paid extremely well. I wonder if today Americans and legal citizens are being given those same opportunities that I was given to make an honest wage.

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Content written by Federation for American Immigration Reform staff.

6 Comments

  1. avatar

    If every person went to their Town fathers and insisted that e-verify be used in their town, the illegals, when jobs are not available, would go packing over the border in a hurry to the jobs that they left to come here to get rich. While it is greedy, to say the least, to pay under the minimum wage, it is also greedy to allow such an invasion of workers in all levels of the workforce taking jobs from the American people for the sake of votes and the hidden agenda of bringing the US down to its knees to form the North American Union, is also insane. Corporate America, including the banks, takes the lead when it comes to greed with the exception of the greediest of all, the elitist billionaires who are pulling the strings directing the country in the way they want it to go (UN Agenda 21) to meet up with their investments. They will roll over in dough while the rest of us roll over in something smelly better known as poverty. There is a lot wrong with this picture and the American people want to know how and why the method of destruction, the foundational transformation, the ruination of this country’s reputation abroad, the anti-American sentiment in this administration, the treasonous abuse and violations of the law of the land, our Constitution are all overlooked! We have a call out to Joe the Plumber to run through Washington, BS with his rotor rooter and free up the stinky mess in the pipeline. Remember, the illegals are not working for little because they get food stamps, housing subsidies, free health care, favoritism, etc. that costs American Taxpayers, billions of dollars every year. They have to go back where they came from….period! E-verify will get them there at a very low cost to the taxpayer. Insist upon it’s use.

  2. avatar
    Barbara Griffith on

    I found out today that some of the farmers in Alabama were only paying their illegal workers $2.00 a box for tomato’s that they picked. What crooks, people like these need to go out of business. This is why no sane legal citizen will do work like this. Not unless they want to work for nothing. These greedy farmers won’t even pay minimum wage. There needs to be a law in each state that covers farm workers that pick fruit, vegetables and other food products. That everyone working on these farms are paid state minimum wage and enforce the law. One farmer was asked if he had put any help wanted ads in the newspapers or went to the unemployment office to list his business as needing help and he said no. But this goes to show you just how greedy some of these farmers are. Get on the evening news and piss and moan about all of their illegal help leaving and find out this sort of thing. And by the way , there happens to be on the market a nice up to the minute tomato picking machine that only needs two workers. One driving the harvester and the other driving the truck along side for the tomato’s to drop into. See how easy that would be?

  3. avatar

    THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE NOT STUPID , NOR BLIND TO THE PRESIDENTS TACTICS RE: ILLRGALS , POSSIBLY DUE TO HIS FAMILY MEMBERS. I HAVE ALWAYS VOTED FOR DEMS , BUT HE IS ONE DEMOCRAT WHO WILL NOT GET MY VOTE . I WILL REMEMBER HIS ACTIONS AND HOW HE TREATED THE TREADURY AS HIS PERSONAL PIGGY-BANK IN NOV. 2012!

  4. avatar

    MAKE YOUR VOICE KNOWN TODAY ON E-VERIFY

    JOBS–the economy has everything to do with illegal immigration, and as more and more of these unfortunate people pour in from the borders or from across the world. The expenditure will keep rising for every US taxpayer, until Congress does something about it; it does no-way mean amnesty. We have the resources to stop this massive invasion, but neither party has relentlessly pursued it. President Obama had great intentions for a while, than fell off in the wrong direction. Only the TEA PARTY lawmakers in straw polls have openly spoke about the financial ramifications, while main GOP members remain silent, as do the Democrats. With 20 million citizens out of work, we as citizens and legal residents must insure that our borders are sealed and that internal enforcement is substantial. There are numerous laws moving through Congress, but the “Legal Workforce Act” has the power to slowly but surely drive the foreign workers out of the jobs, meant for our own people.

    The Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) mandates procedures for business owners to verify the employment eligibility of their workforce, but since the 1986 law it has loosely applied until our prior president George H.W. Bush implemented Pilot program called E-Verify in October 1991. The Congressional authorization for the E-Verify electronic employment eligibility confirmation for employees was to expire on November 1, 2008. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions introduced an amendment in 2009 that would have made E-Verify permanent and mandatory for all construction companies, although Senator Harry Reid did would not allow the bill to come up for a vote. Reid’s contention was, “We need to do comprehensive immigration reform. We cannot do it piecemeal,” In July 2010 a reporter In Las Vegas said, “When you go to the unemployment office there’s many U.S. citizens who are unemployed–construction workers and they don’t have jobs because right now, some of those construction companies find it easier to hire undocumented workers.”

    If President Obama’s “Job Stimulus” had passed in the Senate yesterday, one of its sections was the “Construction” projects. So who are the jobs going to, without the guarantee that Contractors and sub-contractors are going to hire labor—Americans and Green Card Recipients? Without federal programs as the policing LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” Secure Communities, the 287 (G) unethical employers can still bypass immigration laws and they will for more profit. This is the equivalent circumstances of any company, which includes Farmers and the agrarian industries who are cheating US workers of jobs.

    Reid then responded, “I think that any information you have in that regard is absolutely without foundation.” But a Pew Hispanic Center study shows 17-percent of all construction workers are in the United States illegally. Reid says not in Nevada. “That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada?” Like California, the well-known Sanctuary state–Nevada too has a large percentage of illegal workers in the U.S. When asked about E-verify, Reid’s office downplayed E-Verify as accurate, citing recent Social Security Administration numbers. But even then the federal governments (GOA) General Accounting Office that their own contracted accountant, found E-Verify worked 99-percent of the time.

    It’s flawed or so they said. Maybe E-Verify since the program’s inception had issues, but not anymore. They said it was too easy for illegal immigrants to pass through the verification process, using identity fraud and cheat the system. The open border and the special interest entities are forever putting a political dam against any commonsense law, especially as E-Verify have surfaced again for a current session of the House. New innovation are getting considerable better in making it more difficult to slip through the enforcement net. The utilization of Dept of Vehicle records, referencing picture ID is yet another sure measurement that the program is strengthening the ability to extract unauthorized labor. In a surprise move driven by Sen. Harry Reid, he and his elitist Senators egoistically voted to destroy job opportunities for U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants. Sen. Patrick Leahy motioned to table, Sen. Sessions’ E-Verify Amendment, and the motion passed by a narrow margin, 50-47, killing any previous chance of the passage of mandatory E-Verify.

    Senator Reid’s office gave a Statement Monday July 2010: “One single amendment is not the silver bullet to fixing our broken immigration system. We need comprehensive reform that secures the borders, requires 12 million illegal immigrants to get right with the law, and stops employers from lowering wages by exploiting illegal labor.” Senator Reid unable to stop the E-Verify had enough votes to stop the program as a mandated law, but could not stop it being re-authorized. As it stands now, it is not permanent and is only used on a voluntary basis, except for government contracting agencies. UNTIL NOW!

    Rep. Lamar Smiths “LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” (H.R. 2885) HELP THE WORKING AMERICANS AND STOP THESE TRAVESTIES OF OUR LAWS. E-Verify will be a very successful supplement to stopping the illegality of people with foreign status from taking jobs.

    This is just not about the farmers; it’s about meat packing plants, factories and manufacturing. Of course they don’t want to employ regular Americans-legal residents. It’s about any company owner—big or small—who wants to pay as little as possible, with no restrictions on as little they want to pay, for a person’s labor. They have violated this ‘Rule of Law’ because there have been no restrictions on prohibitions to stop them, until Lamar Smith’s H.R. 2885. Special interest groups and the radical open border activists, are currently trying to kill the federal ‘Secure Communities’ initiative. Any individual that is apprehended by the police will have their fingerprints forwarded to ICE, Homeland Security and the FBI for processing. Police data-bases can quickly assess who has been previously arrested, whether he/she is an illegal alien or not.

    What hasn’t been passed on to the general public as admitted in farmers interviews with the Huntsville Times, that they couldn’t locate anybody to hire that was legally here. They the truth came out in the interviews, which they hadn’t even looked for workers at the employment office or advertised in the local press.

    One farmer was offered free advertising by a community radio station, but that individual refused. According to the source some farmers were only paying illegal aliens $2.00 a box, but sold their tomatoes for $10.00 a box. My guess it’s probably this same greedy profit margin across the United States? Something is definitely wrong with this picture. Adding insult to injury the farmers were clearing over $200.000 in profit. Then incredulously the farmers and the big agricultural concerns give no benefits to their workers, so not only do the taxpayers have to pay for hospital visits, from the flue to a serious injury; for the whole family as well. Then the children have free education, thanks to the gullible American taxpayer. I am sure illegal aliens and taxpayers are exploited in any other state, in California for sure. The coastal state has one of the massive growing systems throughout this nation, and greedy farmers pay little for the work, placing the whole weight of their illegal aliens living here on the taxpayers. Internal ICE agents do not have the manpower to raid every despicable farm owners acreage, but this nefarious situation is sure to be prevalent everywhere.

    The website NumbersUSA is the only outspoken, pro-sovereignty group, which identifies the grading records on a chart that is open to anybodies scrutiny. Below you can see next to every personage in the presidential election, their relative grade and the informational pressing issue of E-Verify.

    There are two things that the average American can do, is by adding pressure to mostly the adversity of certain politicians. These reluctant politicians must be bombarded with your calls and free faxes, compliments of NumbersUSA. Contact Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH); House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA); House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) ; House Chairman of Ways & Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI); & Members of the Ways & Means Committee. You can additionally contact your own local Senator or Representative or federal politician at 202-224-3121 and insist on E-Verify. NEBRASKA, Rep. Berg, Rick (GOP) (202-225-2611) ; NEBRASKA, Rep. Smith, Adrian (GOP) (202-225-6435); LOUISIANA, Rep. Boustany, Charles (GOP) (202-225-2031); MICHIGAN, Rep. Camp, Dave (GOP) (202-225-3561) & (202-225-2031); KENTUCKY, Rep. Davis, Geoff (GOP) (202-225-3465); PENNSYLVANIA, Rep. Gerlach, Jim (GOP)(202-225-4315); KANSAS, Rep. Jenkins, Lynn (GOP)(202-225-6601); MINNESOTA, Rep. Paulsen, Erik (GOP)(202-225-2871); WASHINGTON, Rep. Reichert, Dave (GOP) (202-225-7761); WISCONSIN, Rep. Ryan, Paul (GOP) (202-225-3031) You can additionally contact your own local Senator or Representative or federal politician at 202-224-3121 and insist on E-Verify.

    • avatar

      We need to boycott those corporation’s products that are hiring illegals. If they can’t earn money there is no need for illegals and no need for them to block passage of E-verify.

      • avatar

        @Sandrea
        Both problems of immigration and globalization are responsible for this poor economy and housing market.
        We are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. We should BUY AMERICAN MADE AND GROWN PRODUCTS only even if it means doing without! I realize that this is a sacrifice, but in the long run, we will make the strong point that we will not take the greedy culprits treatment any longer and the fact is that the public servants are just that…..SERVANTS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. They work for us and not the other way around. We must hit them in their wallets…..that is what they know best….Money! The same goes for stockholders. If your stock is supporting the manufacturing in foreign countries….then, sell your stock and buy stock in a company that has remained here at home employing your brothers and your sisters. Don’t be greedy like the ones we are complaining about. Having started my Christmas shopping early, I am making every effort to find gifts that are made in America…..When the stores lose money this year, they may re-consider importing products. Let the ship come into port the same way it leaves the port….empty and put Americans back to work! Our elected officials are refusing to do it, so we must take the bull by the horn. God bless America!