Immigration system must be fixed |
| March 2, 2013 |
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By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador Our immigration system is broken and until it is fixed there will be continued threats to our economic and national security. The time has finally come to act; we have a bipartisan consensus that something has to be done now to modernize our immigration system. But before any legislation is crafted, we are holding in the House Judiciary Committee a series of public hearings to examine different parts of our immigration system. I wanted to take this opportunity to update you about what's going on during the immigration debate in Congress. This week the Judiciary Committee held two very informative hearings on immigration. The first hearing looked at our agricultural guest worker program while the second hearing examined the use of E-Verify by employers to check the legal status of prospective employees. My time questioning key experts on the guest worker program revealed the vast majority of businesses and industries agree that the current system needs to be fixed. For instance, it's too cumbersome and unresponsive to the needs of our agricultural industries. One particular striking part of the discussion is that the labor unions want to create an unaccountable board of government bureaucrats who will determine the number of guest workers allowed in the United States. I think the free market should decide the number of guest workers. I will not support a new government bureaucracy surrounding a guest worker program – it's less efficient and responsive than the free market. The second hearing was to learn more about E-Verify's success as a tool to check the legal status of newly hired employees. Right now E-Verify is used by employers on a state-by-state basis and requirements vary greatly. Some witnesses testified that a more uniform use of the E-Verify system would provide an effective enforcement mechanism to virtually stop the hiring of illegal immigrants. An employment verification system like E-Verify is absolutely critical to ending our country’s position as a job magnet for illegal immigrants. The good news here is that the problems of our broken immigration system are being identified and Congress is looking for solutions through the hearing process. We want to pass immigration reform that works. I am determined to do all I can to ensure we finally get it right. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns about this issue. I will continue to keep you informed as immigration policy takes shape in the House. |