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Yes, But Where Do You Put The Chalk?
"The United States of America v. the State of Illinois" has a real dramatic ring to it, no? The Department of Homeland Security is suing Illinois in an attempt to invalidate a state law that bans employers from using E-Verify, a website that allows employers to check if a Social Security number is valid.
Blago signed the law, which passed with bipartisan "veto-proof majorities," in August, and it's supposed to go into effect in January. Illinois legislators say the database is inaccurate, and they're trying to protect workers; Rep. Cynthia Soto says some of her constituents were fired after preliminary E-Verify results incorrectly identified them as undocumented. Right now, the database turns up results within a day or two about 93 percent of the time. The other seven percent of the time, results are "tentative non-confirmations," and those results currently take 10 days and have "less than 50 percent accuracy," according to Blago spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff. The new law says until 99 percent of those non-confirmed results can be available within 3 days, employers can't use the E-Verify system.
This isn't just about about a database, though. It's about the supremacy clause in the Constitution, and it's about whether the Department of Homeland Security is selectively targeting Illinois. Oooh, we love a good government agency–on–government agency wrestling match.
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Headline?
Rep. Cynthia Soto says some of her constituents were fired after preliminary E-Verify results incorrectly identified them as undocumented.
I guess Cynthia Soto dosen't need to provide names of her constituents that were fired. I guess we should just take her word as a Chicago politican
Headline.
Try to keep up, Ferdy.
I'm a little too old to be a gamer. Keeping up is not an option anymore. Hanging on is about all that's left.
I IZ IN UR DATABASE!
I'm sorry, #5, I don't have a cat so I don't know what you're talking about.
Great headline!
I wonder how accurate is the IL FOID database? How fast does it reply?
The Trib states: "The federal government sees the Illinois law as a violation of the Constitution's supremacy clause, which generally elevates federal law over state law."
And yet, we see this supremacy clause not enforced time and time again with state limitations on abortion rights, sexual harrassment in the workplace, medicinal marijuana laws, human resources laws, arrests, sex offenders, etc.
I find it interesting, but hardly suprising that the federal government decides to use this instance to enforce the supremacy clause. I see both sides, but I would not want to be the one whose ss# is screwed up in the system for some reason and I don't get that job, just as I don't want to be the person mistaken as a terrorist because I share the same name with one.
But like Spook, I would love to see some people come forward who have had problems with the system, then hear it secondhand from a politician.
Don't feel bad Ferdy, I didn't get it either.
Although I'm glad that my new favoritely named commenter clarified everything for both of us.
A friend of mine, who does background checks, recently said that the Social Security agency's database is only 95% correct, meaning that, if all of us were checked, 5% of the country would be wrongfully fired for being an illegal immigrant.
5% is already too much, and a state database could only add to the inaccuracies.