Require employers to verify work eligibility with E-Verify
Immigration
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Any employer can enroll in E-Verify today, so voluntary corporate adoption advances the goal company by company, while a rule covering every employer still requires legislation. Industry lobbying is a documented obstacle to that legislation. The head of the Western Growers trade group publicly claimed credit for blocking a 2018 House vote on the Ag and Legal Workforce Act, which would have made E-Verify mandatory. State chambers of commerce and dairy, construction and restaurant groups were still fighting state E-Verify mandates in 2026. A universal requirement has repeatedly neared passage, and each documented failure traces to employer-side lobbying rather than to any court, technical or structural barrier. Majorities of both parties support the mandate, and nothing else stands between that support and the outcome, so we judge business lobbying the linchpin: owners who enroll their companies today and redirect their trade associations can release the block.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: Immigration, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, survey October 2024
- Agriculture lobbyists are once again standing in the way of E-Verify, The Hill (opinion), 2018-09
- E-Verify requirements draw business pushback in some Republican states, Stateline, 2026-02-26
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinated a March 2025 statement by nearly 100 institutional investors calling for comprehensive and just immigration reform, with recommended actions for Congress, companies and investors.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.