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Thanks, J.D., for Conscience Lesson on E-Verify
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Sen. J.D. AlexanderListen to J.D. Alexander. Pull that 20-minute video clip from the Tuesday afternoon Senate session on immigration and just listen to him.
The Lake Wales senator pours his heart out on the reality – the cold, light-of-day reality – of using the costly, flawed, business-strangling E-Verify system. This is the system invented to check the legal-residency of new hires.
Alexander is an expert, that’s why you listen to him. Personally, I think he’s only expert on E-Verify up here. The rest of us just have opinions.
Critics say Alexander is knee-deep in conflict-of-interest. Of course he is. That’s because he’s actually running a business we think we understand but actually haven’t got a clue about.
Nancy SmithHe has been using E-Verify for some time because, he says, “I believe it’s the right thing to do.”
But E-Verify is cumbersome and it's flawed, Alexander explains. You hire, run the test and wait. When name and documentation match, you're in clover. You've got "a legal." When it doesn't, it can take as long as eight days, and then -- if there's "no match," the employee has at least another week to locate the right paperwork. What do you do? Do you let him bring in the crop while he's waiting for papers? Under the Senate bill, Alexander would be fined $500 if the employee later were found to be illegal.
Other senators complained that an employee let go after two weeks for failing E-Verify would still be eligible to receive unemployment compensation.
All the while, these workers are terrified, Alexander says. "You look in their eyes ... These are people who live and breathe, just like us. They want to work. They want to pick our blueberries and bring in our crops. These people are feeding us."
Alexander says he pays blueberry pickers $5 a basket. Even at that, even though pickers can fill 30 baskets in a shift -- that's $150 a day -- he plain can't find enough American-citizen workers who want to spend their days in a field, and he can't complete a harvest.
"I'm telling you, if every employer in every area is required to use E-Verify, a lot of things in this country aren't going to happen," he warned.
It's the federal government at fault, he claims. And I believe he's right. Congress pays lip service to a guest worker program and has since early 1993 when President Bill Clinton failed to get not one but two attorneys general he wanted. Remember Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood? Each of them had a "nanny problem." Lots of talk, lots of nonsense, lots of movement to nowhere. The guest worker program is just another piece of rhinestone candidates flash along the campaign trail.
I believe in securing our borders. I don't believe in laws for some people and not for others. But America's immigration problem and the needs -- not just of American business, but of all the American people who rely directly and indirectly on immigrant labor -- present a complex puzzle that E-Verify is unlikely to solve.
Go on. Dial up the Tuesday afternoon Senate session and see what I mean about J.D. Alexander. For me, his candor is the highlight of the session.
Comments (18)
Alexander is the CEO of ALICO, huge grower of citrus, sugarcane and cattle with nearly 140K acres.
Here is the statement in ALICO's 2010 Annual statement about the effect of immigration laws on the corporation. Read it and see if you detect any thing moral about it.
"Changes in immigration laws or enforcement of such laws could impact the ability of Alico to harvest its crops.
Alico engages third parties to provide personnel for its harvesting operations. Alico communicates to such third parties its policy of employing only workers approved to work in the United States. However, Alico does not specifically monitor such compliance and the personnel engaged by such third parties could be from pools composed of immigrant labor. The availability and number of such workers is subject to decrease if there are changes in the U.S. immigration laws or by stricter enforcement of such laws. The scarcity of available personnel to harvest Alico’s agricultural products could cause Alico’s harvesting costs to increase or could lead to the loss of product that is not timely harvested which could have a materially adverse effect upon Alico."
Alexander is so ethical and moral that ALICO had to pay an extra $74 Million in back taxes, fines and interest for the years 2000-2004 to the IRS.
Alexander is so ethical and moral the IRS is now looking for $22.5 Million plus interest plus penalites plus state taxes of $2.5 Million for years 2005-2007 that would amount to somewhere around $27 Milliion dollars for a total for the 7 years of over $100 Million while the company reported earning much less than they are being back taxed......is that how you operate when your when you are ethical and moral?
We'll have to wait and see what the IRS wants for years 2008-2010.
Moral and ethical?........You decide.
Grower Quote:
"We use to own our slaves......now we just rent them......."
GEORGE FULLER
If the bill is only for new hires, this doesn't make sense. Everything running now will still be running after. Unless the majority of illegal immigrants working in those industries are criminals who'll not be coming back after an arrest or being involved in a criminal investigation.
Scrapping a bill because it has a few flaws, and not doing the work necessary to make sure we have enough legal guestworkers to pick our crops does not make one a patriot. Nor does advocating to allow criminal behavior to continue.
Ms. Smith,
Your logic about illegal immigration leads me to believe this is what you'd have to say about any laws to crack down on prescription drug abuse. >I believe in cracking down on prescription drug abuse but I don't believe in a law for some people and not for others. Especially not when prescription drug abuse brings so much money into our economy. Therefore, we should scrap any bills trying to cut down on it.<
Otherwise, I will watch the video later when I have more time.
Ms. Smith seems to justify that just because Sen. Alexander pays his employees so well that all employers pay their illegals they same great wages. The fact is that they drive the wages down and she knows it. Hotels, restaurants, landscaping all professions where citizens worked twenty years ago are now dominated by illegals who keep wages down.
Another thing to consider is our high school graduates. Where are the entry level jobs for them? How do they learn and work their way up in a field they like? How do they learn so they can own their own business. They can't as the entry level jobs are all taken by illegals or others who will keep those wages low and have no chance for advancement.
Besides, your premise and mine do not matter. The only thing that matters is that No One should hire someone who is not in this country legally. If you do not like the law well then change the Constitution. If you want guest worker programs then work for that. However, never, ever try to justify hiring people who knowingly break our laws just to increase profits.
For a good many years I made my living off farming and I didn't see your comment as an attack on farmers. And as if most farmers are are only in the business to provide food to put on the plates of city people with no regard to profit. Ha!
BTW, I never bailed hay, but I have driven the tractor for those who picked the bails up. :-)
Also was paid $10 an hour nearly 30 years ago to pick tomatoes. Put that into today's money and I might be willing to pick them again for a living- instead of a hobby.