Moran Illuminates Flaws in Rep. Lamar Smith’s Recently-Introduced Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2164)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center, served as an expert witness during a hearing about the Legal Workforce Act, Rep. Lamar Smith’s recently introduced legislation mandating that all employers use an error-ridden Internet-based employment eligibility verification system modeled on E-Verify. The hearing, which took place in the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, was the first public discussion of the controversial bill.

According to Moran, “Making use of E-Verify or any electronic employment eligibility verification system mandatory, outside of broader reform of our immigration system, will undermine American jobs and ultimately impose new burdens on our economy, workers and businesses . . . We need enforcement of labor, employment and civil rights laws, not the current churning of the workforce, where undocumented workers are often preferred over documented workers because they are easier to hire and fire.”

Moran, an expert on immigration and labor issues, has researched E-Verify for nearly a decade and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on the system.

To read Moran’s testimony, visit www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/ircaempverif/Legal-Workforce-Act-imm-subcomm-testimony-2011-06-15.pdf. To watch and listen to Moran’s testimony, go to http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_06152011.html. Click on the “Watch Video Webcast” icon under “Hearing Documentation.” Fast-forward to minute 28:40 (when the hearing starts) or to minute 1:13:24 (when Moran begins her testimony).

To speak with Moran about E-Verify and other immigrant labor issues, please contact Adela de la Torre at 213-674-2832 or [email protected].

General summary of H.R. 2164. (PDF)

Detailed summary of H.R. 2164 (table format). (PDF)

Ley de Fuerza Laboral Legal. (PDF)

Statement of Tyler Moran, Policy Director, National Immigration Law Center, to the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, Hearing on H.R. 2164, the Legal Workforce Act, June 15, 2011. (PDF)

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