Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Employer Background Checks?

Oh, this should be good.
A government program that is stymied by data errors and isn't designed to stop fraud is the keystone of enforcing the nation's laws against employing undocumented workers.

The online system, called the Basic Pilot Program, automatically matches names and Social Security numbers when people apply for jobs. But the 11-year-old system is hardly foolproof.

A congressional audit last year found that the system erroneously identified people 4 percent of the time. Given the vast trove of computerized government records, that meant 18 million people were incorrectly flagged as being ineligible for work because of data mismatches. The error rate has improved, but Basic Pilot is still fallible.

linkage (emphasis mine)
So what we have now is a Democratic Governor caving to pressure exerted by folks like vigilante leader Chris Simcox, who is overjoyed at her decision to sign the employer sanctions bill, and putting the fate of Arizona workers' status in the loving embrace of an online/hackable database that is already proven to be flawed.

Since the current round of workplace raids have yet to net any sizable percentage of racial groups outside of those with brown skin, I think the level of outrage felt is justified.

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