FAIR Legislative Update July 5, 2011

Obama Tip-Toes Around E-Verify; Continues to Push for Amnesty


At a press conference in the White House last week, President Obama avoided answering whether he would sign a mandatory E-Verify law if Congress presented one to him. “[I]f you receive a mandatory E-Verify bill only, without legalization, are you planning to veto that bill?” a reporter asked the President. “[W]e need comprehensive immigration reform,” replied the President. “I’ve said it before, I will say it again, I will say it next week and I’ll say it six months from now.” Indicating he wanted an amnesty attached to the E-Verify legislation, the President added, “We may not be able to get everything that I would like to see in a package, but we have to have a balanced package.”

Congressional Republicans rejected the notion of allowing mandatory E-Verify to be hijacked as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. “E-Verify should be considered as a stand-alone bill,” said House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX). (CQ Today, June 29, 2011) “It is not an immigration bill, it’s a jobs bill,” he said of his own mandatory E-verify legislation. (Id.) Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and chief sponsor of mandatory E-Verify legislation in the Senate, also rejected the President’s remarks. “[At the Dream Act hearing], members of the president’s Cabinet, who claimed to be speaking for the administration, said they wanted an individual piece of immigration legislation passed. Yet today, the president said we have to consider E-Verify in a comprehensive immigration plan. It seems like the president wants it both ways.” (Id.)

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