The state legislature’s top agenda item for 2012 is putting Coloradan’s back to work. Our state has over 400,000 people unemployed — either receiving unemployment benefits, given up looking for work, or working part-time when they desperately need something more. Unemployment for our veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan is almost double the unemployment of the general population. Minorities and youth have an even tougher time finding jobs.
Yet every day, 150,000 illegal immigrants head off to work in Colorado. Our state representatives should be doing everything they can to ensure that Colorado jobs go to legal workers, not illegal immigrants. This session, legislation will be introduced to require private employers to utilize the Federal E-Verify system to help ensure that workers they hire are legal. It would be phased in over time and would ensure new jobs will go to American citizens or legal immigrants. Our U.S. citizens in Colorado deserve nothing less.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares a worker’s name and Social Security number against federal databases. It is intended to help employers ensure that workers they hire are work authorized. It is free and is very easy to use, taking only seconds. In fact, ninety eight percent of the employers who use it are satisfied with the system.
Colorado (along with many other states) already requires state agencies to use E-Verify, as well as businesses vying for state contracts. Nine other states have already passed legislation requiring private employers to use E-Verify, plus two states offer incentives to use it. In these states, many illegal immigrants have left the state, thus eliminating the need for raids and deportations. As more individual states pass mandatory E-verify legislation, it puts pressure on the Federal government to pass E-Verify nationwide. But our unemployed Coloradans cannot wait.
The system is extremely accurate — 99.9 percent of legal US workers are verified to be authorized — legal workers are not turned away. It is so accurate that most business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accept it. Use of E-Verify is a deterrent; most illegal workers do not apply where it is in use.
Many Colorado employers already use E-Verify, which is currently voluntary. There are over 20,000 business locations in Colorado and 700,000 business sites across the U.S. voluntarily using E-Verify. It is now estimated that 1 in 4 employees in the U.S. are checked with E-Verify. Since many employers want to do the right thing, having everyone use E-Verify protects those honest employers and evens the playing field. We should be rewarding honest employers, not penalizing them.
In addition, most voters support making E-Verify mandatory for all employers. A 2011 Rasmussen Poll found 82 percent of likely U.S. voters say that businesses should be required to use E-Verify. So how will the person representing you vote on the upcoming Colorado State E-Verify legislation? Do they want to put U.S. citizens and legal workers back to work? Or will they put illegal immigrants’ welfare over that of our own citizens?
What can you do? E-mail or call your state senator and representative, the state directory is at /directory?openframeset
Let’s hold our representatives accountable. Let’s put Coloradans back to work. Let’s do it now.
Trudy Haines lives in Fort Collins.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
