CAPAC Members Oppose Bill Expanding the E-Verify Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and Congressman Mike Honda, Chair of CAPAC’s Immigration taskforce, criticized Rep. Lamar Smith’s Legal Workforce Act for expanding the use of the error-prone E-verify program.

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-32), CAPAC Chairwoman:

“Expanding E-Verify would be a costly mistake that punishes American workers and unfairly burdens small businesses. If the Legal Workforce Act becomes law, 1.3 million Americans and lawful workers will lose their jobs due to the program’s high error rates. This will disproportionately affect the Asian American and Pacific Islander community since 61 percent of AAPIs are foreign-born and the error rates of E-verify are 20 times higher for foreign-born workers and 30 times higher for naturalized citizens. The cost of implementing E-verify would also fall heavily on small businesses at a time when they should be focused on creating jobs. E-verify hurts American workers, legal immigrants, small businesses, and our economic recovery efforts while doing nothing to fix our broken immigration system.”

Rep. Mike Honda (CA-15), CAPAC Chair Emeritus:

“Making the E-Verify program mandatory without addressing the program’s egregious error rate would be damaging to this country at a time when we need to focus on growing our economy.  Mandatory use of E-Verify will cause headaches and unnecessary hardship for up to 4 million Americans who will have to correct government data to keep their jobs.  Error rates for foreign-born lawful workers are approximately 20 times higher than error rates for native-born workers, placing a heavy burden on workers who have followed our immigration laws. I agree that our broken immigration system doesn’t work and that we must take steps to fix it. However, simply expanding a flawed program without implementing other measures to protect workers is not the answer.”

###

The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) is comprised of Members of Congress of Asian and Pacific Islander descent and members who have a strong dedication to promoting the well-being of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Currently Chaired by Congresswoman Judy Chu, CAPAC has been addressing the needs of the AAPI community in all areas of American life since it was founded in 1994.