A stunning stat on immigration enforcement

Someone once said there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics. (These days, I’d add a fourth lie: a campaign promise. But I digress.)

It’s true that statistics can be misused and blown out of context to serve an agenda, but often, when they’re accurate, they wield meaningful power.

Take this small, but stunning statistic buried in an August 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

First, some background: The Bush administration in August proposed this grand plan to make sure employers were hiring legal workers. Basically, the new rules would force employers to fire workers whose names and Social Security numbers don’t match government records. Businesses could be penalized up to $10,000 per illegal worker if they fail to follow the new rules.

Before the changes, there were no penalties for ignoring any of the hundreds of thousands of “no-matchâ€