Andrea Seastrand: “Today we are offering this amendment that would call, and I want to underline this, for a 3-year mandatory pilot program…”

“Today we are offering this amendment that would call, and I want to underline this, for a 3-year mandatory pilot program in 5 of 7 States: California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey. And these States are most impacted by illegal immigration. As is pointed out, this amendment simply is going to put back into the bill the original language that was passed by the House Committee on the Judiciary. Now, I want to stress that the requirement that illegal aliens be verified for work eligibility is crucial to true immigration reform. I want to repeat that this does not establish a national ID card or even a system by which a worker can be tracked throughout their career. This amendment does none of the following: It does not require any new data to be supplied by the employee. It does not require any new personal information on the employee. It does not create a new Government data base. It is a pilot program that cannot be expanded into a national program without a specific vote by this House. I think anyone who has watched my voting record would agree that I am opposed to any Government intrusion, and this is a simple way to keep American jobs by people that come here legally.”