FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, [email protected], 213-400-7822

NILC Looks to Senate to Reject House’s Defective Health Coverage Bill for Expatriate Workers

WASHINGTON — The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) urges the Senate to reject a defective House of Representatives bill that eliminates important consumer protections for expatriate health insurance plans and that implicates millions of lawfully present immigrants who live in the US. The bill, HR 4414, was passed by the House on Tuesday despite confusion over the real impact of the measure.

Sponsors said the bill was designed to help insurance carriers continue providing coverage to Americans who work outside of the U.S. by waiving some rules under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, because the measure was written too broadly, millions of lawfully present immigrants living and working in the U.S. could be negatively impacted by this bill, losing  consumer protections for employer-sponsored plans required by the ACA.

NILC DC Director Don Lyster issued the following statement after today’s House vote:

“The expatriate health coverage bill does more harm than good. Instead of issuing a targeted fix to employer coverage for Americans working abroad, the sponsors overreached by passing a bill that threatens required health coverage for millions of eligible employees, including green card–holders who have made the U.S. their permanent home and low-wage immigrant workers, such as farmworkers and care-givers. The reckless House vote was like using a bat to swat at a fly.

“There was no real reason to rush this legislation to the floor, as congressional and administration negotiators were still working toward an appropriate solution. With this vote taken, we now look to the Senate to act responsibly and undo the damage caused by the House’s flawed legislation.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 14, 2011

CONTACT:
Adela de la Torre, NILC, (213) 674-2832; [email protected]

NILC Policy Director, Tyler Moran, on E-Verify

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center, provided expert testimony before the House Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means during their hearing entitled, “Social Security Administration’s Role in Verifying Employment Eligibility.” Below is her commentary on E-Verify, the electronic employment verification system she discussed in her testimony:

“At a time when our economic recovery is just starting to show the first signs of movement in the right direction, House leadership should be running away from – not towards – onerous verification requirements that could affect millions of American workers. Workers who are falsely flagged by E-Verify as not authorized to work in this country face miles of red tape, unpaid time off from work, and in some cases, job loss. Workers who have already been hit hard by the Great Recession should not have to jump through this additional bureaucratic hoop to get a job.

“Furthermore, states that have experimented with mandatory E-Verify have proven that requiring that employers use the program without starting with a legal workforce will send unauthorized workers who currently pay taxes off the books, resulting in billions of dollars in loss of tax revenue.  With or without E-Verify, the undocumented and authorized workers who comprise a vital part of our economy are here to stay.  Mandatory E-Verify won’t solve our immigration problems, but it will make things worse for U.S. workers and the economy.  The real solution to our broken immigration system is for undocumented workers to legalize their status.  Passing a policy that will result in the loss of American jobs and costs billions of dollars in tax revenue simply doesn’t make sense.  Rather than engage in ideologically-driven banter, we urge House leadership to work toward a system that ensures that workers in this country have safe conditions and are able to pay their fair share of taxes for the work they do.”

To read the full testimony, click here.

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