Around the Rotunda: No proof immigration verification is flawed
By NANCY HICKS and JOANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Mar 04, 2008 - 10:38:20 am CST

During a hearing last week on a bill (LB963) that requires federal, state or local agencies to verify a person’s legal immigration status if they applied for public benefits, Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop questioned a program that will be used for verification.

He had heard the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program — or similar programs that verify a person’s immigration status — had an error rate of about 20 percent.

Some others who testified said they had heard that, too. State government officials said they had never heard that.

The SAVE program, operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would be required in Nebraska if the law passed. The bill was killed in the Judiciary Committee last week but could be reconsidered.

Nisha Avey, with the Department of Labor, said the SAVE program uses alien registration numbers and not Social Security numbers to verify immigration status.

Programs based on Social Security numbers to verify whether a person is in the U.S. legally have been criticized for having high error rates.

John Albin, with the state Department of Labor, said when he applied for a new Social Security card, for example, his middle name — Harmon — came back misspelled as Hermon.

The Social Security-based system is said to have a 4 percent error rate for citizens and a 10 percent error rate for noncitizens, Albin said.

It is also said to be susceptible to identity fraud.

When Albin tried to investigate Lathrop’s suggestion the SAVE program had a high error rate, he said, he could not.

An agency using SAVE can verify the status of an applicant online at a cost of 20 to 26 cents per query for initial verification. And the response time, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is three to five seconds. A noncitizen would not be denied a benefit based on initial verification, Albin said. An additional procedure would be used to confirm an applicant’s status.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com. Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.

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