E-verify, LA, and Nativism

Anna Gorman is a good reporter and will probably add to this at a later date. The e-verify proponent boasts of 11,000 California employers using e-verify as if the number is very significant. The SBA (Small Business Administration) reported in 2006 that there were 718,000 small businesses (under 500 employees) in California - accounting for 93% + of the California workforce.

So, is the number of users in a year very impressive - not so much.

What employers are most likely to employ people who may or may not be in the country legally - small businesses. How many mistakes will they make just in entering the name to be checked.

Will it be fair or even make sense for employers to forget the e-verify and just not consider anyone with a name that sounds "foreign" for employment. In a nation of immigrants, how easy will that be?

It's more likely that the easiest target of the day - Hispanics - will be shunned, profiled, discriminated against - don't you think?

If this was 1840

clipped from www.latimes.com L.A. County may require contractors to use E-Verify By Anna Gorman and Molly Hennessy-Fiske E-Verify is a free, online program that uses federal databases to verify that new hires are in the country legally and eligible to work. The Obama administration has promoted the program and is encouraging businesses to enroll. Beginning Sept. 8, the federal government will award contracts only to companies that enroll in E-Verify. There are more than 11,000 companies -- including restaurants, hospitals and temporary employment agencies -- enrolled in California, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "It is really growing," said Mariana Gitomer, a Los Angeles-based spokeswoman for the immigration agency. "The government is pushing it to employers. . . . The more employers use it, the more comfortable they are."