Ron DeSantis: E-Verify Critical to Ensure Cheap Foreign Labor does not Fill American Jobs during Pandemic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated that mandatory E-Verify, which helps employers root out illegal aliens and false documents during the hiring process, is critical during the coronavirus crisis that has spurred mass unemployment, not only in the state of Florida but around the country.

Since taking office in 2018, DeSantis has had a vigilant pro-enforcement, pro-American worker immigration state agenda that has resulted in a ban on sanctuary cities, partial mandatory E-Verify, and statewide cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

DeSantis, despite open-border Republican and corporate donor class opposition, told Breitbart News that mandatory E-Verify is especially important as Florida’s economy reopens. More mandatory E-Verify provisions, DeSantis hinted, are expected to come down the pike soon.

The Governor stated:

My first year in office, we did the ban on sanctuary cities, that involves working with the 287(g) program with ICE and the Florida state prison and working with local sheriffs to facilitate that.

We did do E-Verify for private employers. I’m also going to be rolling out an executive order, probably after the election, where we put some more gloss onto that … look, we did E-Verify before the pandemic, but now with the pandemic, we’re trying to get people back to work. Those have got to be American workers, there should not be cheap foreign labor pouring in given that situation.

I think it’s been good. The response has been great and I think it really cuts across party lines and I think people really do want to have a rule of law. We’ve done more in a year and a half in Florida on this than had been done in the last 25 years and we think we’ve gotten a lot of momentum.

E-verify, which is free to employers is the highest-rated federal program in the nation, and several recent polls show that a majority of Americans support making the program mandatory. ‘In Florida, 60 percent of voters support mandatory E-Verify, including more than 56 percent of Hispanic Americans, 77 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of swing voters,’ as reported by Breitbart News.

In a state like Florida, where immigrants make up about 25.4 percent of the labor force, American workers have their weekly wages reduced by perhaps 12.5 percent through uncontrolled mass immigration. Such practices have proven direct impacts on the nation’s working and middle class, who are forced to compete for U.S. jobs with millions of newly arrived illegal aliens and even more legal immigrants every year.

For the full story, please visit Breitbart News.