Tony Snow: LIVE on Fox and Friends (Subject: Bush's Immigration Push)

Tony Snow is about to appear live on FOX & Friends on FOX News. The subject is Bush's push for immigration "reform".

==> “I admit I don’t know either. But I do know that the key is fining those who employ illegals.” <==

The key to employment verification is positive identification of the prospective employee (and later, currently employed) to the employer. S.1348 actually does have something of some value for this purpose, but not enough to make it acceptable.

First of all, self-contained secure ID is technically NOT possible. Consider the simplest version of biometric ID - the driver’s license photo. No special equipment is needed for the employer to compare the biometric (photo) with the person presenting it to achieve a superficial confidence that the person matches the ID card. Adding additional biometrics - fingerprint, iris scan, or encrypted DNA code - can increase your ID card/person confidence, assuming the employer actually has the technical capability to make such a comparison.

But it does NOTHING to establish that the IDENTITY matches the ID card. And in fact, the identity is the all that the employer really cares about. The identity is comprised of the information about the person - name, birthplace and date, SSN/TIN, current & previous address, citizenship or immigration status, felony record, and current/previous employer. This is more than enough to institute a background check, if that is required for the type of employment, or to verify employment eligibility for more casual employment.

NOTE: Some of this information is required for employment - name, birthdate, SSN/TIN, and address. Most of the rest is already collected by almost every employer, so true confidentiality is not significantly affected.

But how many fake driver licenses (and false ID of all kinds) are now in existence, and how many cases of identity theft occur daily? If an employer can access whatever biometric is chosen, so can a forger. Forged IDs will be available on the street within a few weeks of their first official appearance - and while the ID card can certainly be made to match the person purchasing it, the IDENTITY represented will be whatever the person chooses. And cemeteries are filled with under-utilized names and birthdates.

The central database is the only way to truly match up all of the pieces. But what about someone - anyone - trolling the database? Except for immigration and national security, there is no reason for any data to be available outside of the database host.

An employer would use the database by obtaining the appropriate data from the individual and submitting it to the host for verification, along with a picture and a picture of the ID card. For a casual employer, the necessary technology is no more complicated than a cell phone with a camera. For more security, the employer would also submit other biometric data, depending on their technical capability and type of connection. For either, the employer would be required to pre-register their access device and verify their employer identity.

But the response to the employer should NOT contain any data from the database - it should be only a subset of the data sent in, plus the response - eligible, not eligible, or conditional - based on departure from previous employer, or indication of multiple employers. If a problem occurs, the prospective employee would be required to go to an INS (or whatever) office within 30 days with the necessary documents to clear up the problem.

The database should be updated with the latest photo and employer, with the oldest data held for 60 days before permanent deletion. Thus it would NOT become a broad-based, lifetime tracking tool.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.