Stimulus could supply illegals with 300,000 jobs

Stimulus could supply illegals with 300,000 jobs
Positions for Americans may go to aliens if current Senate bill passes

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Posted: February 05, 2009
11:50 pm Eastern


By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


The Senate's stimulus bill could supply 300,000 construction jobs to illegal aliens, effectively sending those taxpayer funds to Mexico and other countries, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

The bill currently under consideration, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provides $104 billion in government funding for new construction projects including highways, schools and restoration of public housing – to generate jobs for some of the 11.1 million unemployed Americans.

However, unlike the version introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-GA, and approved by the House, HR 1, the Senate bill would not prohibit several hundred thousand illegal aliens from acquiring those jobs and sending the money back to their home countries.

The House of Representatives version strictly prohibits contractors from hiring employees without first checking the E-Verify system, which allows employers to verify whether potential employees are authorized to work in the U.S. The program compares employee information with more than 444 million records in the Social Security Administration database and more than 60 million records in the Department of Homeland Security immigration database.

Illegal immigration advocates blasted the House version. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent House leaders a letter urging representatives to remove the requirement from the final bill.

"Since a large portion of the stimulus is concentrated in Hispanic dominated industries, transportation and construction, this provision will have an enormous impact on our community," the letter stated. "Foreign-born American citizens are 30 times more likely than native born workers to be incorrectly identified as ineligible for work."

The Senate does not include the E-Verify stipulation to ensure only Americans receive the new jobs.


Last week, Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., sent a letter to the Senate leadership urging them to include E-Verify in the stimulus bill to guarantee that the new positions will be filled by U.S. citizens.

"The stimulus package is intended to help ease the pain of the current recession and restore growth to our economy," the letter stated." If passed, it will be paid for by the American taxpayers and we believe that Congress should do all it can to ensure that American taxpayers are the intended beneficiaries of its efforts."

The government has estimated that the $104 billion in new spending should produce as many as 2 million construction jobs. The Center for Immigration Studies claims 15 percent of workers in the construction industry are illegal aliens – and that 300,000 positions are likely to be filled by noncitizens.

Sessions plans to introduce an amendment soon to include E-Verify in the Senate bill.

"With so many Americans out of work today, this economic recovery package must focus on the creation and retention of jobs," Nelson said in a statement. "We must do our best to make sure that the jobs this package creates and supports go to the American people."