Looks like Congress is moving toward passing a nationwide mandate that all employers use the E-Verify system to make sure new hires are legally eligible to work.
The House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary recently approved a bill that would mandate E-Verify use by U.S. employers for all new employees, according to a post on the Seyfarth Shaw website.
It’s not yet known when the bill will come before the full House for a vote.
Attorneys Angelo A. Paparelli, Jason E. Burritt and John F. Quill reported there was extended discussion among committee members about the bill’s potential effect on agricultural workers.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) said that an E-Verify mandate would “devastate the agricultural industry,” and that the issue should be dealt with “in a practical fashion,” the attorneys said.
Nonetheless, the committee passed an amendment to the bill closing a loophole that would have exempted agricultural employers from the E-Verify requirement.
The loophole would have amounted to a “laughable de facto amnesty,” the lawyers quoted Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) as saying.
Although the committee closed the loophole, the bill would still give agricultural employers three years to comply.
