{"id":16899,"date":"2018-04-17T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16899"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:35:23","slug":"florida-bends-illegal-job-magnet-boots-e-verify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/04\/17\/florida-bends-illegal-job-magnet-boots-e-verify\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Bends to Illegal Job Magnet, Boots E-Verify"},"content":{"rendered":"

The E-Verify<\/a> employment-vetting system won\u2019t be on Florida\u2019s November ballot for a public vote, but the program is growing nonetheless.<\/p>\n

The state Constitution Revision Commission on Monday rejected Proposal 6010<\/a>, which would have required all employers to use the free federal database to check the legal status of job applicants. After relentless lobbying from the Florida Chamber of Commerce<\/a> and allied activists for illegal aliens, 24 of 36 commissioners voted to kill the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

While the Chamber called the commission\u2019s action \u201ca win for protecting Florida\u2019s Constitution,\u201d E-Verify continues to expand throughout the state and across the country.<\/p>\n

Twenty states have laws requiring at least some employers to use E-Verify. Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee mandate it for all employers. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, in 2011, signed an executive order directing state agencies and their contractors to use the system.<\/p>\n

Nationally, 2.4 million hiring sites were enrolled in the E-Verify program at the end of 2017. California, that famed sanctuary state, listed the most E-Verify-compliant hiring sites<\/a>: 216,850.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported a record 9.1 million individual cases were processed during the last fiscal year. Notably, Florida ranked fourth in the country, with 454,100 E-Verify checks.<\/p>\n

Growth of E-Verify has been rapid. In 2001, just 1,064 employers participated in the program. By 2017, 749,923 were on board.<\/p>\n

The Center for Immigration Studies<\/a> calls E-Verify \u201cone of the most successful tools available to address illegal employment.\u201d By cross-checking information from the federal I-9 form, which must be completed for all new hires, against records from USCIS and the Social Security Administration, E-Verify enables employers to instantly verify whether a new employee is legally authorized to work in the country.<\/p>\n

The Florida Chamber of Commerce boasted it had protected the state\u2019s constitution by aborting the E-Verify ballot measure. In fact, the Chamber\u2019s rear-guard lobbying campaign shielded shady, bottom-feeding employers<\/a> who suppress wages and undercut law-abiding competitors with illegal workers.<\/p>\n

So Florida continues to labor with an inequitable underground economy, and its citizens are denied an opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights. With the pre-emptive defeat of Proposal 6010, the illegal job magnet remains in place. More employers may now opt out of E-Verify altogether.<\/p>\n

None of that sounds like a \u201cwin\u201d for the Sunshine State.