In the half -month premises of the committee, at the end of April, one of the most powerful national state senators in Texas posted legislation that would complicate immigrants in the country illegally to get a job.
Her account It will require all employers in the state to use a free federal computer system, known as an electronic check that quickly confirms whether anyone has a work permit in the US. Senator Lois Calharst of Bresema noted several states under the leadership of the Republicans who provide the program for all private companies and listed others that require it for most of the certain sizes. However, Texas, proud to be the most violent in the country for illegal immigration, instructs only the state agencies and the sexually oriented enterprises to use it.
“E-Verify is the most functional and cost-effective method that Texas can implement to stop the flow of illegal immigration, or those who are not legal here to ensure that US citizens and those who are able to work in Texas Almost identical account Two years ago. (This offer has never hit the Senate floor.)
No one talked against new legislation. Only one member of the committee, the Democrat, asked about it, asking whether the supporters would also prefer an immigrant guest program. Several representatives of the work called the bill with a two -party priority, testifying that too many employers cut the corners, not illegally hiring workers at a lower salary. The bill continued to swim through the committee and the Senate.
But then, like dozens of electronic bills over the last decade, the legislation has died.
Texas’s best Republican leaders built a political brand on the state’s tough position against illegal immigration, pouring billions of dollars into the state governor Gregus Ebot Border security initiativeincluding funding Construction of the border wall and deploying state police to arrest migrants on recently created offense for violation. This session has voted require most sheriff offices cooperate with federal immigration agents.
And again and again the conservative legislative body refused to take As some Republicans call The only most important step to preventing immigrants comes and stayed here illegally: be sure to make them more complicated.
Since 2013, more than 40 electronic bills have been submitted in Texas. Most tried to demand programs for state structures and their contractors, but about a dozen tried to expand the system to private employers in a certain quality. Behind the republican legislators, for the consolidation of republican legislators, the legislation, for example, in accordance with it, the Republican legislators refused to pursue the vast majority of these proposals.
In this session, legislators filed about half a dozen bills that tried to demand from private companies to use the program. The legislation of Kalharst was the only one who pulled it out of any legislative chamber, but eventually died because the state house did not accept it.
Given the rhetoric of Texas leaders on the border, it is a “bright omission” to no more broadly demanding electronic checks, as other states did under the leadership of GoP, said Linden Melmed, former lawyer at George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the US Civil Services and Immigration Services. At least nine republican states – including Arizona, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina – require that most, if not all, private companies use the system. Frawat often positioned Texas as a tougher immigration than each of them.
However, this private mandate has done it even more than ever before, it can illustrate the growing conflict in Texas between the proportion side of the state GoP and the Republicans who want to look tougher on immigration, said Melmed, who was a former US Senator John Corinin.
Melmed said that the resistance to the electronic check not only in the reluctance of Texas Republicans regulate the business. It is about how such a system can affect the state’s work and economy.
It is estimated by 1.3 million Texas workers, more than 8% of the state’s labor force illegally, 2023 reports Analysis of US Census data To the Pew Research Center, a non -partisan analytical center in Washington, Colombia About a quarter Eg The need for housing boom. Similarly, in the illegal sector of agricultural, restaurant and senior care in the state illegally count on workers.
“If you are serious about applying (E-Verify), you would create even worse problems,” said Bill Hammond, a former Goop State Legist, who once ruled the Texas Association of Business. “Do you want to go to the restaurant and use paper plates because no one will wash the dishes?”
Texas’s political leaders know this, Hammond said, but they don’t want to publicly admit it.
ABBott Press Socialist Refused to say whether the governor supports the Private Company’s program. However, if the governor is running over ten years ago, Fra acknowledged that businesses complained About the introduction of the system. At the time, he advertised federal statistics that the E-Verify was 99.5% accurate. According to him, government agencies can serve as a model before legislators imposed it with companies.
Press -Secretary of Lieutenant -Guestor Dan Patrick, who as a senator unsuccessfully pushed the legislation To bring employers accountable for the hiring of immigrants who did not unlawfully returned the requests to the comments, and the spokesman of the speaker Dastin Berrus did not explain why the House refused to take an electronic check. Kalharst has refused repeated inquiries for interviews under her legislation.
State Senator Charles Schwertner, Republican Georgetown, who is the author The first electronic check of the bill The fact that in an interview with Texas legislation it approved that his legislation in 2015 did not go as far as he would like. He said he agreed with the mandate of the collective farm.
“We must obey our immigration laws, both on the border and in the Texas interior, and the E-Verify-WEaming Component,” Schvertner said.
Some Goop legislators, who pushed the issue, faced “deafening” from many colleagues and influenced the industry, said state representative Carl Taper, Republican Lubbak, who submitted two electronic bills.
He said that legislators and industry groups are “mistaken” about the loss of part of their labor who are illegally and on which they feel dependent, he said. Despite the fact that the immigration execution is controlled by Congress, Tepper said the state should do everything possible to prevent such workers from coming to Texas, which complicates them to hire.
Even one of the most influential conservative analytical tanks supports more additional electronic legislationFor example, expanding the state mandate to local authorities. This would be a “simpler victory” than its business requires, said Selen Rodriguez, director of the Texas State Policy Company. However, she said that the organization usually supports a wider mandate and is disappointed that the legislation of Kalharst failed.
Rodriguez acknowledged that the E-Verify was difficult for his group because the legislators have made so little over the years that it had to be prioritized that it was “achievable”.
“Given Trump’s agenda that he won so widely, we thought there would be more appetite to promote it,” Rodriguez said. “But it wasn’t.”
She accused the “behind the scenes” that lobby for powerful industry groups, especially in agriculture and construction, as well as legislators who are worried as support for proposals will affect the prospects of re -election.
A dozen well-known state-owned sectors refused to comment on Propublica and Texas Tribune on their E-Verify positions.
E-Verify fans admit that the system is not a panacea. The computer program can confirm whether the identification documents are in place, not actually whether they belong to the future employee, and as a result, the black market of such documents has grown. Employers can also play on the system by concluding work with smaller companies that in many states are released from E-Verify mandates.
Even if the states accept them, most of them lack strongly. Texas legislators Never asked the agency with ensuring all employers. South Carolina, which has the most violent performance, accidentally conducts an enterprise auditor Report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. But South Carolina does not check whether the companies have been hired here illegally by immigrants, said Alex Neste, vice president of economic and social political research at the Catona Institute, which is prone to Libertarian in Washington, in some states there are nomination for small companies or some employers who are often relied on unrelated work. For example, North Carolina releases temporary seasonal workers.
Immigrants here illegally bring billions In the economy, said Tara Watson, economist of the Brookings Institute, Washington, Colombia District, Analytical Center. Most of the rhetoric on this issue is “the use of immigration as a wedge to increase the voter base that are concerned about cultural changes, but at the same time not wanting to disturb the economy too much.”
According to her, E-Verify expands, “not in interest.”
