Last week, the House Judiciary Committee met to consider legislation that would mandate that all U.S. companies use the federal E-Verify program, which requires employers to use an electronic database to confirm that their employees are legal workers.
Federal contractors are currently the only employers obligated to use E-Verify, although many states, such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee, have passed laws requiring state employers to use the program.
But national E-Verify legislation is facing some opposition, not only from Democrats and the Obama administration, which contend that such a bill should be incorporated into more expansive immigration reform laws, but also from some Republicans and Tea Party members who worry the law would endanger the economy, particularly the nation’s agriculture businesses.
