Hoping to gain an election advantage, House Republicans are pushing to enact
a package of border security measures in September-and get Senate
approval-before the congressional recess. So far, an electronic employment
verification system is not part of the mix.
While the GOP moves forward with
legislation to address a range of border issues-from building a fence to adding
more patrol agents and facilitating the capture and return of illegal
aliens-there has not yet been an agreement on verification."There's been
some discussion," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during a
Capitol Hill press conference Thursday, September 14. "Those conversations are
continuing. No decisions yet."
Both the House and Senate immigration reform
bills included provisions to strengthen work-site enforcement. They each include
language to establish electronic verification.
A conference committee to
reconcile the House and Senate immigration legislation has been put off
following a summer of House field hearings on the Senate bill, which
conservatives oppose because it encompasses a guest worker program and a path to
citizenship for most of the approximately 12 million illegal aliens in the
United States. The House legislation focuses solely on enforcement.
House
Republicans insist that border security come first. Although they aren't ruling
anything out, work site enforcement may not happen in September. It could be
revisited during a lame duck session after the November elections.
"The
employer piece is hugely important in the final product, but it is also one of
the most difficult to solve," says Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Florida, chairman of the
House Republican Policy Committee.
Putnam said complications arise on
employer verification when it comes to deciding whether a Social Security card
will suffice as documentation for new hires and existing employees or whether
tamper-resistant identification should be developed. Whatever is decided has to
then be used for 200 million workers in the U.S. economy.
"It's in a category
of its own in terms of implementation," Putnam says.
Another reason for the
delay on verification may be that the business community is pushing back against
some of the proposals. Critics have assailed the Basic Pilot verification system
for its error rate and the hiring delays it could potentially cause. About
10,724 companies had signed up as of mid-August.
For now, the GOP focus is on
the border security, where the party hopes to realize the greatest electoral
benefit.
"Republicans believe that we can have a virtually no-penetration
border," says House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois.
--Mark
Schoeff Jr.
= Member Only
