Instead of Growing Jobs, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith Advances Jobs Killing Plan

WASHINGTON, DC - On the eve of the House Judiciary Committee's consideration of mandatory E-Verify and guest worker" bills, SEIU's International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina issued the following statement:

"At a time when political leaders should be working together to create jobs, House Republicans are advancing legislation this week that will throw people out of work and further divide our country.

"The package of bills being pushed by career politician Lamar Smith of Texas is a jobs killer. It will severely damage the economy by imposing a new mandate on every employer and every worker in America. It will be especially harmful to small businesses and lead to higher unemployment for American workers. The bill will increase the deficit and contribute to the expansion of the underground economy. Worse still, it will create a new form of indentured servants among immigrant communities.

"It is shameful, really, to see how low Republican leaders like Lamar Smith will go to carry out the strident nativist agenda of their party's right wing. He and his colleagues are willing to cripple our economy and key industries like agriculture that rely on immigrant workers.

"Equally distressing; Smith and his allies are unable to speak truthfully about their proposal. Lamar Smith originally called mandatory E-Verify a "jobs bill" under the guise of opening up jobs for unemployed U.S. workers by getting rid of undocumented workers. As if a laid off college-degreed Silicon Valley worker is going to pack up his family and move to Texas to do stoop labor, picking tomatoes.

"As it has become clearer that mandating all employers to use E-Verify would be detrimental to small businesses, workers and especially growers, the Republicans' twisted logic took another turn: to create a new visa that would pay immigrant workers less and make them more vulnerable to labor abuses. Imagine laying off almost 800,000 American workers to bring in a cheaper immigrant workforce.

"Mr. Smith, weren't you calling this a "jobs bill" for U.S. workers? Get real! Can we employ some common sense and find some real solutions?

"If Lamar Smith doesn't want to listen to workers, then he and his allies should at least listen to members of the small business community, who are our nation's biggest job creators.

"Today, small business owners, including catering business owner David Borris of Northbrook, Ill., stood before the national headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and demanded that Congress "take off their blinders" and "take their earplugs out" and start listening to small businesses that will be severely impacted by mandatory E-Verify legislation.

"The E-Verify debate, Borris warned, 'is going to show us who is serious on the Hill about standing up for small businesses and who is only paying lip service to us when it's convenient to advance the agenda of the larger corporate donor base.'

"Republican leaders need to listen and get serious about creating jobs, not destroying them."

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