E-Verify and undocumented workers in America
When alcoholic beverages were illegal in America, drinking didn’t stop. Alcohol smuggling just became lucrative for criminal gangs. Drugs like cocaine and heroin have been illegal for decades. Consumption of cocaine and heroin didn’t stop; smuggling of these drugs just became lucrative for criminal gangs. Making undocumented migration illegal and militarizing the Mexican border didn’t stop undocumented migration. Human trafficking just became lucrative for criminal gangs.
The problem of alcohol smuggling during Prohibition was solved by repealing Prohibition. Narcotics and narco gangs continue to be a huge problem in America, since the market for drugs in America amply repays the efforts of the gangs. And the labor market for undocumented migrants? That also continues to be huge in America.
All that could be addressed by enforcing the use of E-Verify. As Kevin Drum notes:
“[E-Verify is] 98% accurate within 24 hours and 99.8% accurate overall. And it’s easy to use. Despite this, few businesses use it and it’s not mandatory.”
I’ve long said that militarizing the border and arresting and deporting undocumented workers is a fool’s errand. If we were serious, we would require all employers to use E-Verify. If undocumented workers are discovered in a workplace, the *employer* is fined and goes to prison. Of course, that will never happen, because undocumented labor is too lucrative for employers and consumers.
“The not-so-secret truth is that nobody really wants to get rid of undocumented workers:
One key reason: There are simply not enough “legal” workers to fill all the jobs a healthy, growing U.S. economy generates. And that’s especially so in low-wage industries.
“Employers say that requiring E-Verify — without other overhauls to the immigration system, including easier ways to bring in workers — would be devastating.
““I think you would see a general overall collapse in California agriculture and food prices going through the roof if we didn’t have them do the work,” said Don Cameron, general manager at Terranova Ranch, which produces a variety of crops on 9,000 acres in Fresno County.
“….It’s not simply a matter of not having enough workers to do the hard, often dead-end and low-wage jobs that most U.S. citizens don’t want to do. It’s the shortage of workers overall, experts say.
“For decades, birth rates in the U.S. have been declining, as they have in most of the economically developed world. Today, the birth rate among American women of childbearing age has dropped below the level needed to meet the country’s replacement rate. California’s birth rate is at its lowest in a century. If the economy is to grow and prosper, as almost all Americans say they want it to, additional workers must come from somewhere else.
“All of this could be solved relatively easily by a compromise that increased border security and increased legal immigration. But Republicans are dead set against it. It’s too good a campaign issue.”
Too easy to demonize poor people of color while exploiting them for our comfort and enrichment. Weird.
The case for mandatory E-Verify
The problem of alcohol smuggling during Prohibition was solved by repealing Prohibition. Narcotics and narco gangs continue to be a huge problem in America, since the market for drugs in America amply repays the efforts of the gangs. And the labor market for undocumented migrants? That also continues to be huge in America.
All that could be addressed by enforcing the use of E-Verify. As Kevin Drum notes:
“[E-Verify is] 98% accurate within 24 hours and 99.8% accurate overall. And it’s easy to use. Despite this, few businesses use it and it’s not mandatory.”
I’ve long said that militarizing the border and arresting and deporting undocumented workers is a fool’s errand. If we were serious, we would require all employers to use E-Verify. If undocumented workers are discovered in a workplace, the *employer* is fined and goes to prison. Of course, that will never happen, because undocumented labor is too lucrative for employers and consumers.
“The not-so-secret truth is that nobody really wants to get rid of undocumented workers:
One key reason: There are simply not enough “legal” workers to fill all the jobs a healthy, growing U.S. economy generates. And that’s especially so in low-wage industries.
“Employers say that requiring E-Verify — without other overhauls to the immigration system, including easier ways to bring in workers — would be devastating.
““I think you would see a general overall collapse in California agriculture and food prices going through the roof if we didn’t have them do the work,” said Don Cameron, general manager at Terranova Ranch, which produces a variety of crops on 9,000 acres in Fresno County.
“….It’s not simply a matter of not having enough workers to do the hard, often dead-end and low-wage jobs that most U.S. citizens don’t want to do. It’s the shortage of workers overall, experts say.
“For decades, birth rates in the U.S. have been declining, as they have in most of the economically developed world. Today, the birth rate among American women of childbearing age has dropped below the level needed to meet the country’s replacement rate. California’s birth rate is at its lowest in a century. If the economy is to grow and prosper, as almost all Americans say they want it to, additional workers must come from somewhere else.
“All of this could be solved relatively easily by a compromise that increased border security and increased legal immigration. But Republicans are dead set against it. It’s too good a campaign issue.”
Too easy to demonize poor people of color while exploiting them for our comfort and enrichment. Weird.
The case for mandatory E-Verify
Joel:
I am going to litter your commentary with some detail I have added to many posts on population growth.
In 2006 and counting both immigrants and the native-born, the United States had a replacement rate of 2.03. That was just barely enough to replace each of us and keep the population stable and vibrant with young workers.
Statistical Replacement Rate in 2020 fell to 1,637.5 births per 1,000 women and down from 1.7 births per 1,000 women in 2019. I will not add AB links to this. The commentaries by me are out there. In 2023 the birth rate was 1.62. It did go up in 2020-2021.
In any case, if we do not replace ourselves, we will have a nation of old people. There is a decrease of importance to having vibrant immigration policies. European countries are experiencing issues as their population ages.
Just som e general thoughts.
I can not help but think the increases of immigration (legal or illegally) was intended
Not yours or my place to decide what a woman is to do with herself or body. I have not known a woman to be thrilled to have an abortion yet. There is sadness about such actions felt by women. There is an anger that we block them from having an abortion when it is a healthcare issue to which they may die or be injured permanently.
A compromise on the status of undocumented immigrants and reforming legal immigration feels pretty far off. My sense is that there is too much agreement on the topic to put together something that addresses the one big disagreement satisfactorily. I don’t see big disagreements in increasing security at the southern border. If Yrump were to win and reduce pressure there by even a phenomenal 90%, there is no really potent force in the US demanding more “fairness” for Hondurans. ‘You had 4 good years and if you are still there, well you blew it.’ Likewise I don’t sense big disagreements on deportations: criminals get booted as fast as possible and everyone else is just too costly to try it. Trump won’t get the mass deportations and it won’t bother his supporters much if the border is quieter and criminals get booted efficiently. It’s the pathway to citizenship that is the big disagreement and hard to see where the compromise comes from on it.
One big problem with E-Verify from the employer’s point of view is they cannot use the system until *after* they have made a job offer to the individual. That means that their new-hire may be shortly let go if E-Verify does not come back with confirmation. Which means that job opening has not been successfully filled.
It would be so much better if the employer could run the applicants through E-Verify *before* selecting which one(s) to hire.
Dee:
Good to see you again. Thanks for being on topic.
I agree that if either party was serious about undocumented immigration, eVerify would be mandatory. For someone that is rejected by eVerify, they could stick around until ICE figures it out. I live in California and am involved with agriculture. If there are deportations it is going to be quite a shock and a lot of rotting food in the fields.