[Press Release] House Introduction of Bill Threaten Immigrants &Workers

On June 14, 2011,Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2164). Known as “E-Verify”, the bill would require employers to use an electronic employment verification system to check the employment eligibility of individuals.

The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and affiliates the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC) in Chicago and the Korean Resource Center (KRC) in Los Angeles, express utter disappointment at Rep. Smith’s misguided attempts in putting forth an enforcement only immigration bill to address our nation’s problems. E-Verify will radically expand immigrant enforcement at every workplace in America and put serious consequences for all American workers.

Among other things, E-Verify is flawed in that it will, 1. Prevent millions of American workers from getting a job and cause many more workers to lose their jobs; 2. Deprive the government of billions of in tax revenue; 3. Leave workers and employers vulnerable; and 4. Increase discrimination against Latino, Asian and other foreign-born workers.

The system would impact not only immigrant workers, but due to known error rates of such systems, would also affect authorized immigrants and U.S. citizens. Korean Americans will also beimpacted, not only as a community of color, but also a community whose majority are foreign born. The error rate of E-Verify for foreign-born workers is 20 times higher than for U.S.-born workers.

This bill is the exact wrong approach to improving our nation’s woes; our struggle to keep and get people working, to get the economy back on its feet and to take lasting and common-sense measures towards a working immigration system.

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The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) was founded in 1994 by local community centers to project a national progressive voice and promote the full participation of Korean Americans as a part of a greater goal of building a national movement for social change. NAKASEC is based in Los Angeles and has an office in D.C. NAKASEC has local affiliates in Los Angeles (Korean Resource Center) and in Chicago (Korean American Resource & Cultural Center).