Luis Gutierrez: ‘I’m Ready to Do E-Verify’

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) is reportedly willing to support E-Verify in exchange for permanent amnesty for so-called Dreamers.

“I’m ready to do E-Verify,” Gutierrez told Roll Call for the publication’s Monday feature story on the issue.

The Senate’s Secure and Succeed Act, which is being backed by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Cornyn (R-TX), David Perdue (R-GA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and James Lankford (R-OK), would implement the White House’s immigration framework that would give amnesty to nearly two million so-called Dreamers while mandating E-Verify.

Thomas Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Roll Call that businesses that routinely hire illegal immigrants without consequences have been a major “pull” factor for illegal immigration.

Corporate interests–and the politicians on both sides of the aisle who are backed by the big-business lobby–have long opposed mandatory E-Verify, arguing they would lose access to cheap labor.

“Nearly 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. Meanwhile, 7 million people are working in the United States illegally,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who is considered one of Congress’s foremost experts on the issue and has introduced multiple bills that would would make E-Verify mandatory, reportedly told the outlet. “By expanding the E-Verify system to all U.S. employers, this bill will ensure that jobs only go to legal workers.”

Gutierrez has accused President Donald Trump and Republicans of holding DACA recipients hostage, but he has insisted that Democrats pay the “ransom” to give DACA recipients permanent legal status, indicating that Democrats are ready to give up major enforcement concessions in exchange for amnesty for so-called Dreamers.  Gutierrez even said he is willing to go down to the U.S.-Mexico border with bricks and mortar to help build the border wall in exchange for amnesty for DACA recipients.

But Gutierrez and other Democrats have drawn the line at Trump’s plans to reform the legal immigration system—including limiting chain migration—arguing that it is nothing more than a plan the “first racist president” is pushing to end legal immigration, especially from non-white countries.

“We always knew that President Trump doesn’t like people from certain countries or people or certain colors. We can now say with 100% confidence that the President is a racist,” Gutierrez recently said.