Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-5) is helping lead the charge on “crucial America First legislation” to curb illegal immigration.

Wednesday, Brooks introduced House companion legislation to Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) bill, the “Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act.” Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-1) has signed on as an original House cosponsor to Brooks’ bill.

The legislation would permanently reauthorize the E-Verify program and make its use mandatory.

“American jobs entice illegal aliens to break our laws and come to America,” Brooks said in a statement. “Mandatory e-verify coupled with harsh penalties cuts off illegal aliens from American jobs. The result? Higher pay and more jobs for Americans.”

He concluded, “An added bonus is that illegal aliens who can’t get jobs will self-deport at no cost to taxpayers. That is a great deal for all Americans! I look forward to working with Senator Grassley to advance this crucial America First legislation.”

Highly influential immigration policy reform groups, NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), support the bill.

Dan Stein, president of FAIR, outlined, “Mandating universal participation in the E-Verify program is an important safeguard for American workers who continue to lose jobs and wages to illegal aliens. The free, electronically-based system allows employers to authenticate the legal work eligibility of prospective applicants— the same way a merchant verifies a credit card purchase— with a 99.7 percent accuracy rate. FAIR commends Congressman Mo Brooks for leading on this critical issue, and encourages Congress to honor its commitment to American workers by passing this legislation as soon as possible.”

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, stated, “On behalf of the more than 9 million grassroots activists in the NumbersUSA network, I applaud Congressman Brooks for introducing legislation to mandate E-Verify. That is the most important—and also the least expensive—measure that can be taken to stem illegal immigration and to ensure that U.S. jobs are filled only by America’s legal workers. All other actions to stop illegal immigration will continue to have limited effect as long as the jobs magnet remains. Passage of this bill will also be a gift to the law-abiding employers of America who would no longer have to compete with employers using illegal labor.”

Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn