New Jersey's junior Democratic wiseguy, Sen. Bob Menendez, has put a hold on legislation to re-authorize the E-Verify program, which enables employers to determine whether new hires are legal. He's holding this successful enforcement effort hostage to increased guestworker visas. Here's what a reader sent me this week about the value of the E-Verify program to his firm:
I work for a temporary staffing firm that uses E-verify on every candidate that comes through the door. It has helped out tremendously in screening out people who are not legal to work in the US. It is easy to use and instant in its results. Whenever we do have someone come through that E-Verify says needs to go to DHS or SSA those people 9 out of 10 times do not return because they know that they have been caught. We put up signs that state that we use E-Verify on every candidate and that has had a dramatic effect on our fail rate. When the illegal folks see it they just turn around and walk out the door. It has been a very good program for us.
