Sunday, December 23, 2007

The SAVE Act: Finally Some Sensible Legislation vis a vis Illegal Immigration?

Another hat tip goes to Numbers USA for bringing this to my attention. Heath Shuler, of North Carolina, has come up with a bill that may in fact be some sensible legislation to deal with the illegal immigration mess. The SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement) creates a system where employers can easily verify the status of all their employees. Here is how Numbers put it.

SAVE would eventually require every employee in America to go through the E-Verify system. This internet system provides employers with an inexpensive, quick, and accurate way to verify that employees are not illegal aliens. The rules for use are such that no employee or employer suffers if there is a mistake in the system because there is ample time to correct errors on the employee's side and on the government's side.Here are the nuts and bolts of the loan again according to Numbers.

require during Year 1 that all government agencies, government contractors, plus all businesses with more than 250 employees run all NEW hires through E-Verify.

... require during Year 2 that all businesses with 100 or more employees use E-Verify for new hires.

... require during Year 3 that all businesses with more than 20 employees use E-Verify for new hires.

... during Year 4 add businesses with fewer than 20 employees so that all businesses use E-Verify for new hires.

... also during Year 4 require all businessese to run all their previous hires through E-Verify.

There is a huge potential pitfall that I see with this bill. As my favorite quote goes, "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help''. This looks like the beginning of a massive new bureaucracy and for it to work the government would need to stay streamlined without being bloated. While this is certainly a concern, I also look forward to Shuler explaining the logistics of the system.

On the flipside, almost everyone agrees that without the temptation of jobs illegal immigration dries up. This deals with that temptation head on, and it isn't just some token measure. Shuler's plan at least appears deadly serious.

Currently, Shuler's own website has no information about this bill. That is problematic and besides Numbers USA there are very few resources touting this bill. That is also problematic. This bill has a lot of potential and I believe that with the proper debate it can be turned into one that deals with the problem of illegal immigration correctly without bloating government in an unnecessary way. Please contact your representative here and demand that the SAVE Act get a full and fair debate.

2 comments:

  1. Some of this information is just WRONG. Rep. Shuler's web site does have information regarding this bill. It does NOT legislate another massive federal bureaucracy.

    NumbersUSA has updated information on this bill and 131 U.S. Representative have agreed to co-sponsor it.

    This is a piece of good legislation and deserves our support. Contact your elected representative and ask him to co-sponsor it.

    Help take our country back.

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  2. This was originally written in October on my other site, Proprietor Nation. Since I have had some technical difficulties over there in the last week, I transferred everything here. Thus, he has since updated things on his site and my subsequent pieces say as much.

    As for the bureaucracy, well, how exactly are these new cards going to be tracked? That would be with a new government bureaucracy. Now, you may think that this can be done seamlessly however I have become cynical with how government works.

    To say that this won't create a huge new bureaucracy is to give the government credit I don't believe it deserves.

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