U.S. Rep Wants Mandatory E-Verify for California

We were dismayed that the Supreme Court chose this week to uphold Arizona's law revoking a business's license if it's found knowingly hiring illegal immigrants: we don't like to think about the intrusions the government might visit on private businesses in the course of enforcing this law. But apparently Corona Representative Ken Calvert feels differently: he's pushing a law in Congress to mandate participation in E-Verify by all businesses in the United States, and is calling for California to pass such a mandate on its own.

E-Verify is a database program that allows employers to check the immigration status of potential hires. It is currently mandatory in some states and for firms that contract with the federal government. Of course, any errors in immigration data or delays in processing the paperwork of legal immigrants would be reflected in it, so it's likely to lead to harassment of innocent workers. And it's yet another regulatory burden for businesses (particularly those in California) that are having a hard enough time as it is.