Fact of the Week: 9/27/07

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Did you know . . .

A series of appropriations “riders” passed by the House would require federal contractors, as a condition of receiving a contract, to participate in the “Basic Pilot” employment verification system. 

  • Basic Pilot is not up to the challenge of immediately increasing its participant level to include an estimated 200,000 federal contractors – more than a 10-fold increase over current usage.
  • Basic Pilot’s significant “non-confirmation” rate would result in the erroneous rejection of significant numbers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, resulting in a lengthy bureaucratic ordeal for many, while adding an enormous burden on the Social Security Administration.
  • Moving too fast to require participation in a program before it is ready for such an expansion will not end unauthorized employment and will add to the growing perception that the government is unable to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.
  • Basic Pilot is set to expire at the end of 2008.  This presents Congress with an opportunity to use the regular legislative process to transform the out-dated program into the type of employment verification system this country needs.
Congress should not shortcut the deliberative process to require participation in what was designed as a voluntary program. 

The riders should be stricken from final legislation.

Developing an Efficient and Foolproof System to Ensure a Legal Workforce is the Key to an Effective Immigration Policy

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The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (www.legal-workforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy.  The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.