No Job for You

The Senate Judiciary Committee will likely approve legislation today that would for the first time require every American to get permission from a federal agency before they could work. Ceridian describes the program this way:

Once the initial enrollment and training is complete, employers would be required to use the system to verify work eligibility for all new hires immediately and for their entire workforce within six years. The employee's name, Social Security number, date of birth, hire date and citizenship status or I-94 number would be submitted over the Internet and be checked against the database for hiring eligibility. Within seven to 10 seconds one of three responses - confirmation, nonconfirmation or tentative nonconfirmation - is sent back to the employer. A confirmation means that the individual is eligible for employment, a nonconfirmation means they're not eligible, and a tentative nonconfirmation will require federal government employees to review the request by hand. It is still unclear how much time will lapse between when the tentative nonconfirmation response is sent and when the government will follow-up with the employer.

The goal is to make sure that companies don’t hire illegal immigrants. But, the Social Security Administration estimates that there will be an error rate of 10% to 20%, meaning that up to 20% of Americans will accidentally be deemed ineligible for work at any one time. And it’s not hard to imagine bureaucrats purposefully altering databases to get back at political enemies. You could be black-listed from getting a job – any job – for opposing the President. The ACLU also rightly warns that, because legislators have not mandated that the private information flowing to and from the government be encrypted or that the databases be secured, the data provides a ripe target for identity thieves.

If you think Congress isn’t stupid enough to pass this law, you’re wrong. The House has already passed it.

You can urge your Senators to oppose the program here.