Kris Kobach compares the Legal Workforce Act, a bill to make sure US employers hire legal workers, to the 1986 amnesty legislation (“Another Amnesty?” PostOpinion, June 16).

This is false. A federal requirement making E-Verify mandatory for all US employers is essential to protecting jobs for American workers and reducing the jobs magnet that encourages illegal immigration.

Kobach agreed with this in a 2008 article. Although the Legal Workforce Act preempts state E-Verify laws, it supports states’ rights because it retains the inherent ability of states and localities to issue or rescind business licenses based on the requirement that the employer use E-Verify as directed by federal law.

There are a number of reasons why we need the same E-Verify program for all US employers.

Only 17 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have an E-Verify mandate in place. States that have an E-Verify mandate only apply it in a limited way.

The only way for E-Verify to apply to all employers is to enact the Legal Workforce Act.

Rep. Lamar Smith

Chairman

House Judiciary

Committee

Washington, DC