E-Verify forces reluctant employers to hire legal workers

An urgent post from http://www.numbersusa.com/ explaining how E-Verify works and that it doesn't need a mass round-up and deportation. This follows this post about contacting the Wall Street Journal about illegal immigration. This follows this post about the Presidential Candidate strongest on immigration.  This follows this post  about Louisiana suing about the appropriations of House Seats and the Electoral College(think about redistricting in your state)!   This follows this post about how to Report Illegal Immigrants such as the 30,000 openly illegal immigrants in the border town of El Paso, where President Barack Obama recently bashed immigration enforcement! For more that you can do to get involved click HERE and you can read a very interesting book HERE!

And Remember when contacting public officials to please be firm but respectful. Any over the top messages could result in law enforcement action against you. Just let these politicians know that you are aware of what they have done and that you intend to remove them from office in the 2012 elections.

E-Verify forces reluctant employers to hire legal workers




By Jeremy Beck - posted on NumbersUSA



Georgia's mandatory E-Verify law is driving farmers to use the H-2A guestworker program, which has no ceiling and which was created specifically for the needs of agriculture. Growers, however, often eschew the H-2A program in favor hiring illegal aliens which is always more convenient than filling out federal forms and reporting back to the federal government. Now that Georgia's law makes it harder to get away with illegal hiring, farmers are looking for legal workers. According to WXIA-TV / 11 Alive in Atlanta, some aren't happy about it.



11 Alive spoke with R.T. Stanley, an onion farmer, who will reluctantly use the H-2A program next year for some of his workers. Stanley says he and other farmers are "just forced into it because they can't get enough labor otherwise." But that's exactly what E-Verify is supposed to do: force employers to hire legal workers.



Stanley went on to complain that the H-2A program would add 25 percent to his labor costs. I believe him when he says the H-2A program is more cumbersome and expensive than hiring illegal workers. Cheating is usually easier and cheaper than playing by the rules.



I blogged about Stanley a few months ago when he told National Public Radio that American workers were walking out on jobs that paid up to $200 per day. The claim sounded dubious, but NPR didn't speak with the workers to confirm their wages. I suspect we'll never know what the American workers were actually paid. In Georgia, employers who use H-2A workers must pay all of their workers a minimum of $9.12 per hour, while those that avoid the H-2A program only have to pay $7.25.



At the higher rate of $9.12, a worker on Stanley's farm would have to work more than 21 hours in a day to make $200.



Employers who use H-2A workers must meet minimum standards. Workers are frequently housed in barrack-style structures with beds that must be at least 3 feet apart and 12 inches off the floor, showers, toilets and safe drinking water. Concrete floors and cinder block walls satisfy the minimum requirements according to a Medill News Service story, A tale of two workers: H-2A farm labor vs. undocumented. As Medill reports, illegal workers live and work in worse conditions.



The wages and working conditions required by the H-2A visa program may seem nominal to many, but getting employers to meet even these minimal standards is one more step in the right direction for Americans who want less illegal immigration.



JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA



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