My name is Ken Oliver, and I am senior director of Right on Immigration at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on SB 1621.
Earlier this year, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released its latest research on expanding and implementing the use of E-Verify in Texas. This paper, titled Toward Achieving a Legal Texas Workforce, concluded that continuing statewide E-Verify expansion and implementation is an important and necessary step as part of the state’s overall effort to limit illegal immigration, the underground economy, and identity fraud. While E-Verify does not solve all of these problems, it is also clear that we will never get them under control without expanding and improving E-Verify at both the state and federal levels.
Border Security
Immigration and the Moral Limits of Federalism
Lincoln’s natural rights statesmanship should be our guide. If Hayek taught us to inquire about who ought to decide and Lincoln taught us to ask to what end, then the question of immigration compels us toward a third and inescapable question: Where is the line drawn? The principles of subsidiarity and federalism demand that matters should be resolved...
February 4, 2026