LETTER: Congress can do positive things for unemployed workers

Dear Editor:

If Congress truly wants to do something positive for the unemployed American workers, there are two things it can do and not spend a dime of our taxpayer money.

1. Immediately pass legislation mandating all businesses licensed in the U.S. use E-Verify starting in 2010.
• The main benefit is it would ensure all new hires would be legal citizens.
• As the new hires are put to work, the unemployment rolls would shrink and reduce unemployment benefit costs.
• Illegal aliens denied employment will self deport. There will be an immediate easement of demand on schools, hospitals and prisons. The estimated cost of illegal aliens to the federal government is $338 billion a year. As the illegal-alien population self deports, the costs will go down significantly.
• With E-Verify in place and closing the jobs faucet for illegal aliens, the crush of illegal aliens in the country will diminish dramatically.

2. Immediately put a hold on all new legal immigrants into the U.S. for a period of five years.
• The main benefit is we will not be importing unskilled labor to compete with the current U.S. unemployed unskilled labor.
• A secondary benefit will be a reduction in federal cost benefits to the 1.5 million coming ashore year in and year out with no end in sight, further reducing federal costs.
• These common-sense actions cost no federal dollars to help alleviate the rising unemployment problem in this country.