The federal policy that I would adopt with respect to immigration is E-Verify. E-Verify is an online or web-based service whereby all the employers can verify their workers’ eligibility to be employed within the country. The immigration policy compares every worker’s Employment Eligibility Form 1-9 with the U.S. government data so as to establish which employees are working in this nation illegally. Where the information matches, the employee is eligible to be employed in the United States. However, where there is a mismatch, E-Verify will alert the employer and the worker is allowed to work while the issue is investigated within eight working days. E-Verify is operated and maintained in partnership with Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The federal immigration policy according to Dinan (2007) has continued to be an acid test for political debates for various decades. The lawmakers have always been faced with dilemma situations; on the need to promote global competitiveness by welcoming top foreign experts and the need to restrain illegal immigration and safeguard the country’s borders. In order to avoid such a dilemma, E-Verify should be adopted as it will ensure that the immigrants are eliminated automatically by themselves. At the present moment, various debates are focused on the way to streamline a huge technical visa application procedure and concentrate on the huge number of present undocumented immigrants already within the borders of United States. This is specifically to the young individuals brought to the country by their parents. There is the challenge of implementing federal immigration policies at the
neighborhood level without affecting the public confidence and trust within the immigrant neighborhood.
Arguably, E-Verify is a key federal immigration policy that should be adopted because of its strategy of ‘self deportation’. At the present moment, E-Verify is presented to employers on a voluntary terms nationally. The policy has been employed in Arizona, where the government requires every company and government institutions to verify its workers lawful right to e employed within the state. The immigration policy is an effective tool of ‘self deportation’ as the immigrants will find themselves not able to find jobs because they are within the country illegally. Since they will not be getting any jobs, the immigrants will find no incentive to stay or migrate to the same borders. As it is argued by Dinan (2007), the unregistered immigrants will find themselves helpless and worse off than in their countries and will have no otherwise but to go back to their home countries.
The utilization of E-Verify provides various benefits to the government that authorized its employment in several ways. Those in favor to immigration reduction argue for the mandatory utilization of E-Verify as an essential method of ensuring that all businesses are functioning on an equal playing field. This will ensure that no individual organization benefits from relatively cheaper illegal labor. More so, the employment of the policy ensures the protection of the employer because it makes sure that all employees are verified and that the employer has not violated any rules prohibiting the employment of undocumented immigrants.
E-Verify is a cheaper way of eliminating illegal immigrants in the country. Unlike the deportation policy that will cost the government huge tax payers money. E-Verify do not cost the company hiring any fortune because it is freely provided. Accordingly, the undocumented individuals will not have to seek government’s help for deportation, but will leave at their own will because of lack of incentive to stay. As argued above, the policy is a strategy of ‘self deportation’; therefore, no expenses will be incurred by the state or government. Additionally, E-Verify program increases efficiency. According to United States Congress (2012), the use of an electronic 1-9 result with a faultless E-Verify integration enables one-time data entry. Arguably, the necessary data entered into the 1-9 form is automatically presented to the E-Verify system. E-Verify has an integrated compliance checks and built-in data verification and notifications that are very vital in assisting personnel to conform with immigration policies and help them to avoid costly penalties that may result from an audit. For instance, various electronic systems deliver notifications for expiring files. In verifying an individual, E-Verify will not allow expired files.
Various opponents of E-Verify have sounded their concerns on the fact that the policy is problematic. According to Feere (2012), E-Verify has presented various challenges and issues to employers as well as the documented employees that use it. The key challenge according to Feere (2012) is that it is the principal accountability of the employees to demonstrate their lawful right to be employed in this nation. He further argues that where E-Verify discover a discrepancy, the prospective employee will have to utilize his or her own finance, time, and energy to attest his or her legal residency. This argument against E-Verify is of relatively minor concern, it is far much better that the undocumented individuals go through the proper process than to have several illegal immigrants.
The other argument against E-Verify regards its effectiveness. Most opponents have argued that the policy is not effective in stopping the undocumented employees from getting employment within the country. Their arguments is not based on the fact that E-Verify does not identify undocumented persons, but based on the fact that identified undocumented persons have ended up being employed again by the same companies within the country. This is a problem of the company who go on to employ undocumented individuals, otherwise E-Verify identifies undocumented individuals (United States Congress, 2010). In order to curb this vice, the companies should be discipline and supportive of the government’s intention to lock out illegal immigrants from employment. It is always a temptation on the part of companies to employ cheap labor from illegal migrants in order to increase their profitability. Every company should understand that it is illegal to employ individuals who do not have legal rights to be employed within the country. Thus, they should use E-Verify to identify documented employees and avoid legal problems.
In review, E-Verify is an online-based service, which provides employers with the opportunity to verify their workers’ eligibility to be employed within the country. E-Verify identify the undocumented individuals and thus, are not eligible to be employed. Since they cannot have access to employment, the illegal immigrants will not have an incentive to be in the country and will end up going back to their home country. Accordingly, the immigration policy eliminates dilemma of the need to promote global competitiveness by welcoming top foreign experts and the need to restrain illegal immigration and safeguard the country’s borders. This is because it sends away illegal immigrants while protecting legal immigrants, which can be a source of foreign experts.
References
Dinan, S. (2007). "U.S. pushes E-verify for hires". Washington Times.
Feere, J. (2012). "An Overview of E-Verify Policies at the State Level." Center for Immigration Studies.
United States Congress. (2012). E-Verify: Preserving Jobs for American Workers. London: General Books LLC.
United States Congress. (2010). E-Verify: Challenges and Opportunities. U.S. Government Printing Office.
