US bishops’ immigration campaign urges opposition to E-Verify expansion

June 16, 2011

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Justice for Immigrants campaign is urging Catholics to oppose the expansion of E-Verify in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. E-Verify is the federal government’s Internet-based system that allows employers to determine whether workers are eligible to work in the United States.

“Unless Congress legalizes unauthorized immigrants, mandatory E-Verify will begin with a handicap of 8 million unauthorized workers who will be driven further into the underground economy, hurting both the US economy and workers by decreasing federal tax revenue by more than $17.3 billion over ten years, creating an unequal workplace, and lowering labor standards for all workers,” according to Justice for Immigrants. “Because of well-documented flaws in the Government databases upon which it relies, E-Verify does not detect over half of the undocumented workers entered in the system, yet results in false positives for hundreds of thousands of American workers.”

“We urge you to let your Senators and Members know that unless and until the E-Verify program is improved and undertaken in the context of comprehensive immigration reform, you oppose its expansion and mandatory implementation.”

The Justice for Immigrants campaign, launched by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and 19 other organizations in 2005, is part of the US bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services office.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Help block the expansion of E-Verify in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform! (Justice for Immigrants)
• Sister Jane Burke Named To Head Justice For Immigrants Campaign (USCCB, 2007)
• Catholic Bishops Launch Immigration Reform Campaign (USCCB, 2005)
• E-Verify