Jared Kushner, Wiki
President Trump’s new budget retreats on his campaign promise to require all U.S. businesses to use E-Verify to check their new hires, signaling the White House’s surrender on one of the best tools to shut down the jobs magnet that spurs illegal immigration.
In the budget, released Monday, Mr. Trump says he backs the current mostly voluntary version of E-Verify.
E-Verify, run by Homeland Security, is an electronic system available to employers to run their new hires’ information. They are told, usually instantaneously, whether the person is work-authorized.
Currently it’s voluntary for most companies, though federal contractors are supposed to use it, and some states have passed laws mandating use as well.
Though not infallible, the system is considered the best way to prevent illegal immigrants from taking jobs, and has long been the Holy Grail for security advocates and those pushing for stricter immigration limits.
The Trump budget retreat was dismaying to them.
“I hope it was simply an oversight, rather than an indication that the Trump administration is abandoning the most effective tool we have to limit illegal immigration and protect the jobs and wages of American workers,” said Rosemary Jenks, vice president at NumbersUSA, which runs television commercials backing use of E-Verify.
Gone is language from the previous two budgets calling for “mandatory nationwide use.”
Immigration experts said the administration is setting the table for the 600-page immigration proposal Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has been preparing for months. That plan would shift American immigration to a more business-friendly system — and, sources say it does not include mandatory E-Verify.
Having the budget say otherwise could have been an embarrassing conflict, said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies.
“It had to be changed to stay consistent with Kushner’s proposal, which is at odds with what the president has been saying,” Ms. Vaughan said. “It’s a takeover of the president’s immigration agenda by the special interests who benefit from illegal immigration.”
E-Verify, run by Homeland Security, is an electronic system available to employers to run their new hires’ information. They are told, usually instantaneously, whether the person is work-authorized.
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