John Hope Bryant: “Mr. Chairman, we have a pilot program working in this area already. The result is that employers who have been in the…”

“Mr. Chairman, we have a pilot program working in this area already. The result is that employers who have been in the pilot program like it, and the other result is that there have been no claims of discrimination come out of the pilot program. So the fears raised both on the part of prospective employers that might be placed under this provision and the fears raised by potential discrimination simply do not have any basis in our experience, having operated pilot programs elsewhere already. The fact of the matter is that employer sanctions now in the law; that is to say, the law that says it is against the law for an employer to hire someone who is not legally present in the United States, those sanctions are not working any longer. They used to work, but they do not work any longer because job applicants have discovered how to counterfeit any one of or all of the 29 documents which can be presented to prove one's legal status. Without verification in this bill, we really have no way to make this most significant improvement, and that is how to get around document fraud that completely undermines the law that prohibits employers from hiring somebody who is not a legally present individual. It is a simple system. The Social Security number is looked at, and a check is made to see if a number is valid and if it belongs to the name on the card. That is all there is to it. It is not an intrusion on civil liberties.”