Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) recently introduced The Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 3711), which would eliminate the current paper-based system and require all employers to submit information from employees’ I-9 forms to the E-Verify system.
A Texas congressman recently introduced a bill that would require U.S. employers to check the work eligibility of all future hires through the E-Verify system — an approach to immigration reform that Society of American Florists members have asked Congress to avoid.
On September 8, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced The Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 3711), which would eliminate the current paper-based system and require all employers to submit information from employees’ I-9 forms to the E-Verify system. (Currently, participation in E-Verify is optional for most employers.)
Under the proposed bill, if the information provided to E-Verify fails to match the records of the Department of Homeland Security or the Social Security Administration, E-Verify issues a “tentative nonconfirmation” (TNC) notice.
This legislation could cause major hardships for employers given the chance for clerical errors and a short timeframe to address it, said Shawn McBurney, SAF’s senior director of government relations.
“Errors can occur because employers enter the name incorrectly — or government employees make a mistake entering information into their databases,” he said. “These types of problems are particularly common for people with multiple or hyphenated last names or names with difficult spellings. They could also happen when employees fail to fully update their information after a name change.”
People who receive a TNC designation have two weeks to challenge it or they would receive a “final nonconfirmation” (FNC) notice, which calls for immediate termination — or else their employer would face a major fine or jail time.
The current I-9 system requires employers to accept documents that “appear” genuine during the hiring process and forbids them from checking their authenticity. As a result, it is estimated that as much as 70 percent of agriculture’s current 1.8 million workers are unauthorized and utilized false documents to gain employment.
“Enactment of a stand-alone E-Verify bill such as the LWA could result in the loss of an overwhelming majority of the agricultural workforce, crippling American agriculture and undermining our economy,” McBurney said.
During Congressional Action Days last March, SAF members educated their representatives about why a stand-alone E-Verify bill would be perilous for the floral industry and urged them instead to enact legislation that includes providing legal status for current employees to ensure continued production in agriculture and also creates a new agricultural worker visa program to provide access to a legal, reliable workforce into the future.
No action has been scheduled for the bill. SAF will continue to lobby on the issue.
