"The Basic Pilot Program began in 1996 as an experiment in seven states. Under legislation authored by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, it was expanded to all 50 states in 2004.
Participation is voluntary and as of this week 14,834 employers were participating, including 247 federal, state and local government offices. In California, 1,990 businesses were participating. More than 30 Los Angeles County agencies use the system as well.
Under the program, after someone is hired, an employer enters the worker's Social Security number onto a database and it is sent to the Social Security Administration, which verifies that the number is a valid one. If a match cannot be made, the name and number are then checked through Department of Homeland Security databases."
Good stuff.
Sounds good.
As to the headline: What's with this "undocumented" euphemism? "Illegal" is shorter, fair and gets right to the nub. "Undocumented" suggests that they, whoops!, just misplaced their DOCUMENTS and that all they need are some easily-obtained replacements. The lede's use of "unauthorized" is closer, but again, why not "illegal"? Is "rape" next going to be euphemized into "unauthorized sex"?