Congress has been unwilling to enact comprehensive and meaningful immigration reforms. It’s embarrassing and upsetting that Congress cannot even agree on how to provide for our nation’s border security to keep out terrorists, drug runners and human smugglers. As a direct result of congressional inaction, several states have taken matters into
their own hands. States have adopted a potpourri of different immigration laws, including empowering police to check immigration status and, most notably, mandating businesses to utilize the Federal Electronic Verification System (e-Verify) on all newly hired employees.

In 2011, Florida seemed poised to join the list of states with their own unique brands of immigration policies. Similar to Arizona, Florida’s proposed law would have required businesses to utilize e-Verify to check the legal status of employees. While the Florida measure fell short, just across our border, Georgia and Alabama enacted Arizona-style laws and almost immediately realized the significant economic consequences of their decisions.

In Georgia, farm labor shortages accounted for a $181 million loss in specialty crop farming alone (i.e., tomato, watermelon, nursery, blueberry, and squash). To put this number into perspective, agricultural production accounts for 8 percent of Georgia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Alabama’s agricultural losses in its specialty crops alone accounted for another $200 million to $400 million. Adding to these staggering economic consequences, the University of Alabama estimated the exodus of 80,000 undocumented workers will also eliminate the need for 60,000 additional jobs
downstream in the economy. If you are keeping score at home, that is 140,000 jobs lost.

Regardless of its questionable accuracy, simplicity and effectiveness, mandating the use of e-Verify is a no-win scenario. Immigration policy that addresses only one issue is destined to fail. If you want companies to rely on e-Verify, then you must also be willing to develop a realistic guest-worker program. Why? Because as much as it hurts our feelings, even with high unemployment, domestic workers are not applying for labor-intensive jobs such as harvesting crops. In fact, recent studies indicate less than 5 percent of domestically born applicants for farm jobs actually finished a single harvesting season. Let’s be clear: Efficient farm laborers are making as much as $15 to $18 per hour, nursery and landscape employees are earning $10 to $14 dollars per hour. Not to mention, these employees receive payroll checks with employers paying workers compensation, unemployment tax, Social Security and Medicare.

Here is the bottom line: Agricultural employers stand to lose as much as 75 percent of their current workforce if mandatory e-Verify laws are enacted without simultaneously enacting a guest-worker program. Crippling Florida’s agricultural industry should scare every Floridian, as Florida provides the lion’s share of our nation’s winter vegetables, Florida produces nearly 75 percent of all the indoor tropical foliage and houseplants sold within the U.S., and Florida is known the world over for its citrus production, both juice and fresh fruit. Losing domestic production of our food may prove to be one of the biggest national security and food safety threats in the nation’s history.

It is time to stop the rhetoric. It is time to get serious about immigration reform, and it is time to work on practical solutions -- not emotion-driven, economy-killing policies that truly cut off our noses to spite our faces!

In 2008, Arizona became the first state requiring all employers to confirm workers' legal status using e-Verify. Shortly afterward, Kris Kobach, now Kansas secretary of state, wrote an article, "The Immigration Answer," stating that "attrition through enforcement works," based on the massive self-deportations of illegal aliens from Arizona. Today, e-Verify is still the answer to our illegal immigration problem.

E-Verify effectively breaks the job magnet that pulls illegal aliens to come here in the first place by reducing their chances of getting jobs while increasing the possibility of detection. No round-ups or amnesty are needed -- just e-Verify, a rational way to curb illegal immigration.

E-Verify is a free federal program that's easy to use, highly accurate (up to 99.5 percent), with super-fast confirmations. And contrary to myths, an e-Verify non-confirmation doesn't mean instant deportation or loss of employment; it allows people to contact the Social Security Administration or the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service to correct any mistakes in their records. The beauty of e-Verify is that illegal aliens fear detection so they need not apply.

E-Verify is becoming highly effective in 15 states. Why not more, why not in Florida, why not in all 50? Simply put, elected officials have cowardly buried their heads in the sand for want of power and a buck. Additionally, they refuse to face reality that illegal immigration affects every aspect of our lives -- educationally, economically, environmentally, medically, culturally, and socially to the tune of billions of dollars per state per year. The worst part is that we, the American people, are forced to pay high taxes, which inevitably go to support millions of illegal aliens.

Illegal immigration costs Florida approximately $4 billion annually and more than a million Floridians are unemployed. Isn't it time to make e-Verify mandatory in Florida? It's time to ask your state legislators two simple questions. First, do you want to give a job to an illegal alien or to an American or legal worker and, secondly, will you vote "Yes" for e-Verify? They can fudge on the first question, to be sure, but if they won't e-Verify loud and clear, then throw the bums out and replace them with someone who bleeds red, white, and blue, instead of yellow.