Wherein U.S. Citizens Are Presumed Illegal

Matt Welch | June 10, 2008

The Bush administration, in an aggressive new effort to keep illegal immigrants out of the workforce, on Monday ordered all companies doing business with the federal government to begin ensuring their employees can legally work in the U.S.

The order will require thousands of firms to use a government system called E-Verify to check workers' Social Security numbers. [...]

Firms doing business with the government risk losing their contracts if they break federal rules.

What's the problem with that? What part about "illegal" don't they understand???? Oh wait:

[I]n 2006 the Social Security inspector general found discrepancies in 17.8 million records for citizens and legal immigrants[.]

Women sometimes change their last names when getting married. The Social Security Administration database sometimes generates its own mistakes through sloppy data entry or god knows what else. Does your company employ 24 people? If so, one of your co-workers, on average, has a discrepancy in the SSA database, and would therefore disqualify your company from contracting with the feds until the error is fixed and certified. Good luck with that!

And as almost always happens, another "fix" on illegal immigration ends up punishing U.S. citizens.

Kerry Howley on E-Verify here and here and here and here.

Comments

|6.10.08 @ 12:04PM|#

Wow, I wish someone would deem Dictator Bush illegal and ship him off somewhere!

JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

Bingo|6.10.08 @ 12:05PM|#

E-Verify? The late 90s called and want their naming scheme back.

tarran|6.10.08 @ 12:05PM|#

You guys just don't understand do you?

The past few years have shown that if we are to live in a free society, we must accept a regime where government permission is necessary to work.

tarran|6.10.08 @ 12:07PM|#

Oh, and there is no chance that this system will be used to punish political opponents - government officials in the U.S. are incorruptable and are never vindictive.

Elemenope|6.10.08 @ 12:08PM|#

Look on the bright side: if the Feds can't get any contractors due to their own silly rules, then perhaps the Fed won't get any of its work done. Perhaps all of its plans and projects will collapse for want of competent workers.

Yay!

God|6.10.08 @ 12:10PM|#

Please upper-case the initial letter of my name. Thank you.

|6.10.08 @ 12:18PM|#

Upper-case is a verb?

|6.10.08 @ 12:24PM|#

Look, kids! It's the Bearded Sky Fairy!

INS Agent|6.10.08 @ 12:30PM|#

Matt, we're going to need you come into the office. There's a problem with your paperwork.

You should bring everything you'll need for some extended involuntary travel abroad.

The God of Typographers|6.10.08 @ 12:32PM|#

yES

|6.10.08 @ 12:33PM|#

If god wants upper-case to be a verb, then it's a verb.

Lord, tell us, are only the cheesmakers blessed, or are all workers in the dairy industry blessed?

|6.10.08 @ 12:34PM|#

An ID requirement like this, based on the government's records, is going to be a disaster and deprive innocent, law-abiding people of their rights.

But only when applied to verifying people for employment. When applied by 80 year old volunteers in a middle school gym on election day, it will work perfectly. Anybody who tells you different just loves illegals, and hates freedom.

BOMFOG (look it up)|6.10.08 @ 12:35PM|#

Bro, you can just leave the email field blank. Add years to your life.

Ken Hagler|6.10.08 @ 12:37PM|#

It would be poetic justice if the lonewacko/Vdare types ran afoul of this, but they're probably all unemployed anyway.

Genesis. 3:14|6.10.08 @ 12:40PM|#

@ Warty (look who's making fun of names!): thou art curds above all cattle

FSM|6.10.08 @ 12:55PM|#

I am not impressed.

|6.10.08 @ 1:00PM|#

FSM,

Since you're here, I have a theological question:

Macaroni art. Offensive or Holy?

|6.10.08 @ 1:05PM|#

E-Verify will finally start the attrition
and return of 20+ million Illegal Aliens who have been gaming and abusing our Immigration Laws and the 14th Amendment in collaboration with criminal employers and Mexico's Agenda to create an Illegal Mexican Nation within the borders of the USA!

lunchstealer|6.10.08 @ 1:09PM|#

So this is gonna be at least twice as likely to come up with a false positive as it is an actual illegal.

OK, so there are an estimated 10-15 million people in the US workforce who are non-legal. A larger-than-normal percentage are in migrant, informal, or temporary employment circumstances and unlikely to work for a government contractor.

So there are 17.8 million fubarred SSN entries for legal workers, presumably distributed evenly throughout the workforce. This is compared to 10-15 million, a fraction of which are likely to be working in full-time positions for government contractors. Yup, no way this could turn out to be a massive and counterproductive clusterfuck.

FSM|6.10.08 @ 1:10PM|#

Macaroni art should always exalt pirates. Or tell of how I made all of creation, including the mountains and trees and midgets.

|6.10.08 @ 1:12PM|#

Understood.

Sauce Be Upon You

|6.10.08 @ 1:12PM|#

An ID requirement like this, based on the government's records, is going to be a disaster and deprive innocent, law-abiding people of their rights.

But only when applied to verifying people for employment. When applied by 80 year old volunteers in a middle school gym on election day, it will work perfectly.

Talk about apples and oranges.

Poll workers wouldn't be checking a federal database for real-time verification, but are asking for a "hard" ID issued by the state.

robc|6.10.08 @ 1:46PM|#

joe,

Thats what provisional ballots are for.

Problem solved. Next.

Rhywun|6.10.08 @ 1:49PM|#

Nice try, OibL, but the spaces between words give you away. Nice use of caps, though.

Orange Line Special|6.10.08 @ 3:39PM|#

It's truly heartwarming to see tranzis pretend to care about we U.S. citizens, but let me suggest actually caring rather than just lamely pretending.

In fact, the entire Orange Line could put their minds together and try to come up with a system where U.S. citizens could quickly and easily deal with discrepancies.

So, since I'm sure libertarians aren't simply supporters of illegal activity who, like the ACLU and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are trying to prevent enforcement of our laws, show us the plan.

No, really: come up with a plan. Either that, or admit what your real objection is.

Rhywun|6.10.08 @ 3:58PM|#

When The Law is anti-freedom, I see nothing wrong with blocking its enforcement. See: The Drug War.

|6.10.08 @ 4:56PM|#

Thats what provisional ballots are for.

Because provisional ballots are always counted.

I guess it depends on what problem you are trying to solve.

|6.10.08 @ 4:59PM|#

Just like a citizen told to fill out a provisional ballot and then prove he's a citizen, a worker whose social security number doesn't check out because of a mistake by the govenrment can assume the burden of proof to correct that error, too, robc.
Problem solved, I guess.

Mad Max|6.10.08 @ 11:16PM|#

joe,

I suppose that a lot of voters will be disenfranchised if their names have to be checked against the Social Security database. Are you aware of any proposals to do this?

What other things about Social Security are untrustworthy, or is it "only" the database?

Mike Laursen|6.11.08 @ 1:48AM|#

So, since I'm sure libertarians aren't simply supporters of illegal activity...

Ah, but many of us are, when the laws are stupid or unjust. Legality is not an ethical standard.

|6.11.08 @ 2:06AM|#

In fact, the entire Orange Line could put their minds together and try to come up with a system where U.S. citizens could quickly and easily deal with discrepancies.

No, you couldn't. If Federal Air Marshals can't get themselves off the Do-Not-Fly list, despite the legal backing of the head of Homeland Security and the head of the TSA, you aren't going to get yourself on the U.S. citizens list.

1 in 25 Americans will be ineligible for employment. The good news for you is that it will most likely be women who have a name change, and you probably want them barefoot and pregnant anyway.