Immigration Crackdown: The E-Verify Train

From, of all places, a trade magazine, Convenience Store News, a very clear analysis of how the Supreme Court's upholding of Arizona's law requiring employers to use E-Verify creates unstoppable momentum for that employee verification system.

The E-Verify Train - Business Focus - Convenience Store News: "Recently, the business community got a major wake-up call when the U.S. Supreme Court waded into the national immigration debate and upheld the now-infamous Arizona employer sanction law, the Legal Arizona Worker's Act of 2007. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the Arizona law 'falls well within the confines of the authority Congress chose to leave to the states.' The high court further found that the Arizona law, which mandates that employers use the federal E-Verify system, was not preempted by the current federal law and that states do, in fact, have the right to punish employers found to have hired unauthorized workers by suspending or revoking their business licenses. ...

The court’s decision will certainly open a floodgate of state legislation across the country and further build momentum for national E-Verify legislation currently being drafted in Congress. ...

Pending action at the federal level is going to force some quick decision-making for the business community. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is expected to introduce a bill in the coming weeks mandating that most or all employers across the country enroll in the E-Verify program. ...

But while it is unclear how it will all play out, one thing is very clear to those who have been closely involved in this issue across the country -- the E-Verify Train has not only left the station, it is barreling down the track like a runaway locomotive. It’s not a question of if; it is a question of when and whether it will look any different than the current program. (Hint: the answers are very soon and not very likely.) "