U.S. Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a mandatory employment verification system (E-Verify) bill that ignores our nation's economic situation, inflicts massive suffering on immigrant communities, and induces a chilling effect on the fragile economic recovery, particularly in the agriculture sector.

The following is a statement of Julien Ross, Executive Director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition:

"Mandatory E-Verify would immediately signify massive red-tape for small businesses, economic setback for industries desperately trying to get back on their feet, and prove disastrous for millions of hard-working immigrant employees and their U.S.-born loved ones who could very well end up on the streets without an income to support them. In this fragile economy we need immigration reform that empowers us to recovery, not piecemeal enforcement legislation that forces us to use a flawed system.

"There are many problems with mandating a federal employment verification program at this time, some of the more glaring ones include:

1. E-Verify is based on several enormous and error-prone databases that still contain plenty of errors according to a January, 2011 GAO report;

2. E-Verify will be an expensive proposition, especially for small businesses and agriculture. If a business wants to hire a person, the owner will have to pay for software and hardware, pay for training, make determinations based on data obtained from the error-prone database, and ultimately pay for damages incurred by anyone discriminated against or fired unjustly.

3. And, in another horrible twist, E-Verify could land an employer in jail if he/she does not respond within ten days of receiving notice from DHS that a problem exists or if the employer makes a mistake or misuses the system.

" Mandatory E-Verify is not business-friendly, economy-friendly, or family-friendly. Indeed, E-Verify is a distraction from real immigration solutions, one that will negatively impact local economies already suffering from anemic growth and sporadic hiring. As has been demonstrated in Arizona, which has a mandatory E-Verify law in place, the goal of reducing unauthorized immigration will not be reached by enforcement alone. Until we have a fix for the whole system of immigration, standalone measures like E-Verify will only create more problems and cause unnecessary suffering among immigrants and their citizen families.

"Congress should refrain from wasting its time on coercive anti-business proposals. Its attention should instead be focused on working with the White House to provide real solutions for reforming our country's outdated immigration policies."