Despite claiming to be pro-jobs, Democrats on the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee killed a bill, on party-line vote, that Republicans are calling the “best jobs bill of the session.”
“It is the people at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder that are hurt the most by the employment of illegal immigrants,” said Colorado Springs Republican Sen. Dave Schultheis. “Democrats try to act like the party of the people, but voting against this measure hurts the very people they claim to be championing: the poor, students and minorities. Those are the people losing their jobs to illegal immigrants. The demagoguery is apparent.”
Senate Bill 33, authored by Schultheis, would have required all non-governmental employers in the state to participate in the electronic federal E-Verify Program, which is used to confirm the legal status of all new employees. More than 175,000 employers nationwide, and nearly 5,800 in Colorado, are now enrolled in the Department of Homeland Security program. Nationally, one in four new hires are processed by E-Verify.
“There is significant unemployment in Colorado and the legislature is grappling with how to best increase the number of jobs available for Colorado citizens,” Schultheis said. “It is just astounding to me that Democrats claim they want to create jobs, but then vote against a bill that would actually do that.”
The state of Colorado already utilizes the E-Verify program to a degree. Since 2006, any company doing business with a state government agency must participate in the federal E-Verify program. ”It’s time to move forward to assure all Colorado jobs are for Colorado citizens and legal immigrants,” Schultheis said. “E-Verify is not ‘anti-immigrant,’ because real immigrants have green cards and can work legally,” Schultheis said.
Based on a Government Accounting Office audit, the internet-based E-Verify program has an enviable error rate of only .004. More than 96 percent of new hire applicants are processed and approved within 24 hours.
Only 2.8 percent of applicants are rejected due to a mismatch between name and Social Security number, and 90 percent of those persons do not protest the rejection. More than 175,000 employers now participate nationally and an average 1,200 employers joined the program each week in 2009.
As a result of Democrats in the legislature defeating the implementation of E-Verify five years in a row, proponents of the measure are gearing up to run a ballot initiative that would let the voters, not the legislature, decide on implementing E-Verify. “Polls are showing that the vast majority of Americans want strong action taken on the unlawful employment of illegals,” Schultheis said. “We all remember what happened in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia when voters believe they are not being listened to.”