Thread: Senate Subcommittee Debates Employment Verification

http://ocregister.com/ocregister/new...le_1186575.php

Senate immigration subcommittee debates employment verification
New ID card, expanding Basic Pilot Program are among options being discussed.

By KIRA PEIKOFF
The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON – Expanding the current program that employers use to check someone's eligibility to legally work in the U.S. would only make a bad system worse, government and business experts told the Senate immigration subcommittee on Monday.

The Basic Pilot Program would become mandatory for all 7 million U.S. employers under the Senate-passed immigration overhaul.

Senators who support and oppose the bill that passed have said that more refinements are needed to the section designed to ensure that employers don't hire illegal immigrants and are subject to significant penalties if they do.

While some lawmakers say the only solution is a single employment ID card, Stewart Baker, Homeland Security's assistant secretary for policy, said he prefers bolstering the current system. Making that mandatory, he said, "will ensure businesses have a clear and reliable way to check work documents."

However, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., believes what is needed is a new fraudproof identification card. He wants one that connects a valid Social Security number to the prospective employee, perhaps through biometrics. Kyl voted against the Senate bill.

Baker countered that a new ID card would be costly in time and federal money. A weakness of the current Basic Pilot Program is that workers can use 27 documents to establish their identity and/or work eligibility, said Richard Stana of the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog.

Not only is document fraud abundant in the current system, but also the government does not adequately enforce immigration laws at the workplace, the witnesses said.

That puts the burden on the employer to "play cop" and try to determine whether documents are real, Kyl said.

Experts say a lack of enforcement has led to increased illegal workers.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., an author of the Senate bill, said in a statement that he prefers that the burden for enforcement not rest with employers.

"Our enforcement provisions are focused on ensuring that employers participate in the government system, including reliance on better interagency coordination between the IRS, Social Security and the Department of Homeland Security," he said. "It doesn't require employers play Sherlock Holmes with every new employee."

The employment issue is expected to be hashed out in a Senate-House bill conference.



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It was wonderful watching the ICE princess and the other 2 jokes of aministrators for social security and ICE policy squirm in their seats when they didn't have answers. Sen Kyl was becoming very impatient when one of them was questioned and couldn't give a straight answer. Sen Sessions wasn't too happy with their responses either. When questioned about the rampant fraud and id theft pervasive throughout social security not one from ICE or Social security had a good answer which further tells me this administration has no care or concern about the implications of this on the welfare of Americans or the budget. Her highness the ICE princess did a tap dance that would make Fred Astaire proud of her.