U.S. Senate Approved Several Amendments Dealing With Immigration Enforcement Not Included In The 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2892)
On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, the Senate approved several amendments dealing with immigration enforcement and benefits which were not included in the 2010 homeland security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892) passed previously by the House. An amendment introduced by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) dealing with E-Verify was passed by a voice vote after a motion by Sen. Schumer (D-NY) to table it was rejected 44 to 53. Sen. Sessions’ amendment is extremely important because it could make the voluntary E-Verify program, in its present form, permanent and mandatory for all federal contractors beginning September 8, 2009.
The final federal contractor’s rule, which extends the use of E-Verify to covered federal contractors and subcontractors, including those who receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, came as a result of Executive Order 12989. The rule was originally scheduled for roll-out last January 15, 2009, but had to be postponed because of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland challenging the legality of the rule.
The version of the bill passed previously by the House on June 24th would extend the E-Verify program for only two years. Thus, the existing differences between the amended version passed by the Senate and the House bill will have to be reconciled and a final version will need to be agreed upon in conference before changes can take effect.
Secretary Napolitano announced early on July 8th t
he department’s intention to rescind the controversial No-Match Rule in favor of the “more modern and effective” E-Verify. In a surprising but decisive response, the Senate also adopted an amendment from Senator David Vitter (R-LA) that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) from using any Fiscal Year 2010 appropriated funds to rescind the No-Match Rule.
Sen. Schumer, who led the effort to table Sen. Session’s amendment, stated that declarations made earlier by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano that the Administration would support a regulation that requires employers to use E-Verify in order to be awarded federal contracts had rendered the amendment “moot.”
However, the real reason for Sen. Schumer’s opposition is that the present administration wants to enact immigration compliance laws that target employers and, Republicans, now the minority in the Senate, want to enact immigration compliance laws targeting employees. But in a surprising move, supported by a few Democrat senators, all amendments dealing with immigration enforcement offered by Republicans were approved.
More concerning for employers, however, is the apparent administration’s pursuance of a more capable and technologically advanced version of E-Verify. Sen. Schumer has stated repeatedly that E-Verify does not “go far enough” and made clear in several occasions that he favors a hi-tech employment verification system which employs biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, eye scans, and more. Similarly, Secretary Napolitano, who believes E-Verify is a “smart, simple and effective tool” has also made clear, in agreement with Sen. Schumer that “we need to continue to work to improve E-Verify, and we will.”
These declaration not only indicate that the Obama administration and key democratic leaders in Congress share the view that immigration compliance should target employers, but also, as it would appear, through the use of an “improved” or, in other words, a more capable and technologically advanced E-Verify that could include not only biometric identifiers, but also information sharing capabilities linked to other governmental agencies.
The possibility of an “improved” version of E-Verify does not seem far-fetched when considered in
light of present existing Memorandums of Understanding between governmental agencies which already allows for information sharing, past joint raids, and an appropriations bill which provides for $5.4 billion to fund DHS’s employment verification activities.
Further, such “improved” E-Verify, despite the potential tremendous governmental invasion into the workings of private institutions, could give the Obama administration a serious “footing” in dealing with millions of illegal immigrants, which can be “politically” cashed at a later time.
So far it is unclear what immediate effects the Sessions and Vitter amendments would have if enacted. Both the federal contractor and No-Match Rules are currently suspended due to ongoing litigation.
A few weeks ago I was quoted in 
On July 31, 2008, the House approved "H.R. 6633" to extend E-Verify, the federal government's electronic employment verification system, by five years. In spite of the many signs previously given by U.S. Representatives approved without amendment, HR 6633 or the Employee Verification Act of 2008, 407-2. 
the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to extend the life of the voluntary program five years to Oct. 31, 2013. U.S. representatives initially supported legislation to scrap E-Verify in favor of a new mandatory verification system, but according Giffords, she introduced a five-year extension to make time for more study of the current system. Further, Giffords told lawmakers during House floor remarks that "within five years or less, the federal government must develop a mandatory system that operates uniformly across all 50 states." Technically, the bill would 
authorize two Government Accountability Office studies about aspects of E-Verify. The first study would examine erroneous tentative nonconfirmations under E-Verify, specifically focusing on the causes of erroneous tentative nonconfirmations, processes to remedy errors, and the impact of such errors on individuals, employers, and federal agencies. The second study would analyze the effect of E-Verify on small businesses and other small entities using the program. That study would focus on the cost to small entities of complying with E-Verify, an estimate of the number of small businesses participating in E-Verify, an analysis of compliance requirements such as reporting and recordkeeping, and steps DHS can take to minimize the economic impact of participating in E-Verify. 
allow additional time to design a fair and effective employment verification system is a workable proposition for employees and employers alike. The bill now moves to the Senate, which is in recess until Sept. 8, 2008. 
The House subcommittee approved a bill that would allow the "recapture" of previously 
unused employment-based visas. The bill ("H.R. 5882"), introduced April 23 by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), was approved on July 31, 2008 during a markup session. Eight Democratic representatives approved the bill. The bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. The objective of the bill is to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") to recapture visas that were authorized between fiscal year 1992 and 2007, but went unused due to bureaucratic delays. The bill prevents visas from being lost in the future by rolling them over to the following fiscal year. The visa recapture applies to both employment-based visas and family-based visas. 
Rep. Lofgren stated that "H.R. 5882 is about ensuring that bureaucratic 
inefficiency and waste do not stand in the way of U.S. citizen families and businesses trying to use our immigration system in a legal way." The bill does not change the present number of available visas and does not add visas to caps. What the bill does is find visas lost due to "bureaucratic inefficiency." If the bill eventually becomes law, it would mean that approximately 557,000 additional or "lost" visas would be available for use. It would appear that a broad coalition supports the bill. Such law could have a very positive effect on Florida, but immigration reform would still be needed to affect its economy. 
On June 24, 2008, The House Appropriations Committee approved a U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding bill for $39.9 billion. However, the bill also rejects an amendment to extend the federal electronic employment verification program or E-Verify.
(“the Order”) amending Executive Order 12989. The Order, an aggressive move to keep illegal immigrants out of the US workforce, requires contractors and others doing business with the federal government to use E-Verify (formerly known as the Basic Pilot or Employment Eligibility Verification Program). E-Verify is an electronic employment verification system run by DHS in partnership with the Social Security Administration, which permits participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. E-Verify is voluntary for private companies, but mandatory for government agencies. The Order, which will also apply to new hires initially, in time, will affect millions of workers working for federal contractors nationwide. 
Interestingly, employers in the health care business using the Medicare program, janitorial services providing services to courts, universities getting federal student loans for its students or grants for some of its projects and programs, companies in the defense industry, and even contractors serving food in cafeterias in any government agency will be considered government contractors and will have to comply with this order. 