House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith announced that he will introduce his legislation to make the E-Verify program mandatory, according to Craig Regelbrugge, vice president of government relations and research at ANLA. Smith has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, June 15. E-Verify is an online, legal-employment-status verification system created by the Department of Homeland Security.
Regelbrugge was among a group of people who met with Smith’s counsel on June 8.
“There is acknowledgement that the labor-intensive agriculture community would be uniquely affected by this legislation," Regelbrugge said. "While several considerations have been alluded too, none of them offer the guarantee of a legal and reliably available workforce that our industry, and American agriculture, need to remain in business.”
Regelbrugge stressed the importance of industry leaders delivering a strong message to their Congressional representatives that mandatory use of E-Verify alone will directly impact both their business’ contribution to the local economy and the many American workers they directly and indirectly employ.
“Expansion of E-Verify must be done concurrently with broader reforms to America’s broken immigration system,” he said.
A timeframe has not been established, but Regelbrugge expects the total phase-in period may be about three years or so.
ANLA will release more details as discussions continue.