Businesses have no excuse for hiring illegal immigrants
Citizens across North Carolina are increasingly concerned about the impact of illegal immigrants and the drain they cause on our financial resources. There is no doubt that the cost of services provided to illegal immigrants by our state and local governments outweighs tax revenues that illegal immigrants generate.
Health care is among the largest expenses. Hospitals provide services to thousands of uninsured illegal immigrants. They absorb some of the cost but pass much of it along to their paying customers and taxpayers.
Businesses are the biggest beneficiary of illegal immigration and are the reason unauthorized foreigners are here in the first place. Some employers say they have difficulty verifying immigrants’ legal status.
So far, however, the federal government has chosen to look the other way, and many businesses are glad it has.
In states that have passed tough new laws to penalize employers of, and deny public benefits to, illegal immigrants, the illegal immigrants have begun to move out of those states, often before the new laws are even implemented.
We now have the technology to provide businesses the tools they need to help determine an applicant’s legal status.
The E-Verify program provides an inexpensive, quick and accurate way to verify employee eligibility. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows employers to confirm the legal status of new hires within seconds.
If any businesses bypass the E-Verify program and continue to hire illegal immigrants, they could and should have their business licenses suspended or revoked.
ó Jeff Gerber
Monroe
Pondering a universal mystery
The Science Channel on television says that “95 percent of the universe was formed in three days.”
What I want to know is … who was there to measure?
ó Janet B. Christie
Salisbury