Jon Kyl: “Because the immigration bill failed on the floor of the Senate, a variety of States have begun to pass their own laws to…”

“Because the immigration bill failed on the floor of the Senate, a variety of States have begun to pass their own laws to enforce certain elements of immigration policy, including determining employment eligibility. My State of Arizona is one of those States. What I noticed that at least a couple of them have done, including Arizona, is to require that employers check with the Department of Homeland Security, and the basic pilot program we have established as a pilot program, to determine the validity of the Social Security status of the prospective employee. It may well be that as States fill the gap created because the Federal Government has not adopted immigration reform legislation, especially dealing with that subject, that the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security will be increasingly called upon to provide information to the States. Because of that, they are probably going to need to be able to improve their systems; not to change what they do or create a Federal program but at least to be able to respond to those State inquiries.”