Through the House Judiciary Committee he chairs, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas introduced in September the Legal Workforce Act that would require employers to use the online E-Verify system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the U.S.
Some 290,000 companies use the system on a voluntary basis today and several business associations expressed support for the bill, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association. But some small businesses fear the Legal Workforce Act will pile onto their existing compliance costs.
In August, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services expanded to New York and New Jersey ”“ but not Connecticut ”“ a “self check” version of E-Verify that allows foreign workers to check their own employment eligibility status online in English or Spanish.
In a 2010 study on behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ohio-based Westat said the principal barrier to participation in E-Verify appeared to be a lack of awareness of the program, but many businesses also cited the cost and time or the fact that they could not see how participation would benefit them.
The law is opposed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Immigration Law Center, with NILC estimating the current version of E-Verify misses more than half of the illegal immigrants that are run through the system.
At a June hearing, Craig Miller argued the new law would close loopholes and testified he successfully implemented E-Verify in 2006 while CEO of Ruth”™s Chris Steak House, which has locations in Tarrytown, N.Y. and Newington, Conn.
“During downturns in our economy ”¦ fewer immigrants are needed, but as the economy improves, operators expect to face a dwindling pool of potential native employees,” said Miller, testifying on behalf of the National Restaurant Association that he chairs. “I hope that in the near future we can turn our collective attention to undoing the damage being done to the H-2B seasonal and temporary workers program by regulations coming out of the U.S. Department of Labor. The predictions in demographic shifts tell us that we will also need to create a legal channel for employers in the service sectors, such as restaurants and construction, to bring other than seasonal workers in a legal and orderly fashion. History tells us that when our economy picks up again, we will need those workers.”
In September the federal government delayed implementing new wage scales for H-2B workers, partly in response to some business groups that said it would saddle them with huge cost increases and penalize them for complying with the law in certifying foreign workers.
Last March, the USCIS proposed moving H-1B visa registration online, which it says would save U.S. businesses $23 million over the next 10 years. USCIS hopes to implement any new system for the fiscal 2013 H-1B season, which opens in April 2012.
Under the new system, employers seeking to hire H-1B workers would register electronically with USCIS ”“ a process that would take 30 minutes to complete. USCIS would then select the number of registrations predicted to exhaust all available visas. Employers would then file petitions only for the selected registrations. The registration system would save employers the effort and expense of filing H-1B petitions.
As of early September, employers had grabbed only half of the available H-1B visas allocated by the U.S. government for the fiscal year that began in April. Connecticut and New York rank in the top 10 states for H-1B visas on a per capita basis, with Washington, D.C., the runaway leader followed by New Jersey.
