E-Verify at the Crossroads

Great.

Well, thank you, Henry.

Thank you for hosting this conversation.

You know, I think I'll probably just begin by stating two principles or two premises.

The first, only individuals who are authorized to be in the United States should be here.

And only individuals who are authorized to work in the U.S. labor market should work in it.

You know, these are not radical claims, not radical premises.

They are, in fact, the law of the land.

And I think they are the law of the land for good reason.

There are many harms associated with illegal immigrants in the American workforce.

The first is that it harms American workers, American citizens, workers who are otherwise authorized to be here, especially those with lower education, lower skills, who often are forced to compete with the illegal immigrants.

It pushes downward pressure on wages and conditions.

Second is that it harms law abiding firms.

You know, employers that abide by our immigration law that verify the employment of their workforce face a, you know, competitive disadvantage relative to employers they are competing against who hire illicitly and are able to employ their workers with substandard wages and substandard conditions.

And thirdly, it corrupts entire sectors of our economy, entire industries.

If we allow for businesses within these industries to develop business models that are predicated on access to cheap, oftentimes exploitable labor, it prevents them from making the necessary investments to increase productivity, increase output, increase or train the skills of their workers and increase wages as a result.

You know, I think it's probably worth establishing sort of the scale of the problem.

I think estimates suggest that anywhere from eight to 10 illegal immigrants are in the U.S. labor market.

Perhaps those numbers have declined under the enforcement actions of the Trump administration.

And it's important to understand why rather the incentives that draw illegal immigrants to our country.

You know, illegal immigrants don't come here just for the sake of breaking the law.

They don't overstay their visa just for the sake of overstaying their visa.

You know, they come here for a job.

Jobs are a incredibly powerful magnet that attract illegal immigrants into the United States.

And it's important to ensure that we, to the best of our ability, are able to turn that magnet off.