We all know House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX), one-third of the “Three Amigos” on immigration and perhaps most vocal member of the GOP Mass Deportation Caucus, wants to expel 11 million undocumented people that live in this country. However, he has now resorted to insulting our intelligence by supporting inefficient programs in his bid to get rid of undocumented immigrants. Lamar Smith has turned his attention to supporting mandatory use of E-verify, which is an expensive, ineffective and burdensome government program. Lou Dobbs, who has found a new and more appropriate home for his anti-immigration views on Fox Business, hosted Lamar Smith on his show earlier this week, where Smith claimed that the program is “99% effective” and will protect American jobs. Watch:
Smith’s statement is false. E-verify would force employees to prove that they are of status in order to work. It would force Americans to ask a government database whether they can work or not. According to the government’s own statistics, E-verify has failed to identify undocumented people over 50% of the time. According to a USCIS study conducted by Westat in 2009, 46% of unauthorized workers were correctly detected, the rest — 54% — were deemed authorized to work.
