SAVE Act will create a huge government data base of all Americans, not just immigrants

EDITOR:

A new bill being pushed in the U.S. House of Representatives by some misguided Democrats and Republicans, the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, contains provisions that should give all Americans cause for concern. Rep. Tim Ryan needs to stop this dangerous bill in its tracks.

The SAVE Act would dramatically expand the government’s flawed “E-Verify” program — ensuring that millions of Americans will be denied the ability to work. If passed, every employer in the United States will be required to verify the eligibility to work of every current and prospective employee, including U.S. citizens. In order to do this, the SAVE Act would create a massive government database containing extraordinary amounts of personal information, with no privacy protections, about every person in the U.S.

E-Verify is currently used by less than one percent of the nation’s employers. Despite the small number of participating employers, the E-Verify program has been besieged with ongoing technological snafus, database errors and bureaucratic bungling, causing numerous delays and financial losses for both employers and employees. Expanding it nationwide will only multiply and exacerbate these problems, setting up a monstrous system that will put millions of Americans out of jobs. At a time of growing economic uncertainty, the last thing we need is for Congress to pass legislation making it even more difficult for Americans to work.

Invariably, DHS will confuse the files of people with similar names or use outdated or erroneous information, creating a “No Work List” similar to the government’s “No Fly List.” The lessons of the No Fly List have taught us that it is virtually impossible to remove yourself from this kind of list.

The SAVE Act also expands the “no match” rule which would require employers to penalize or fire U.S. citizens and legal workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match up with the error-ridden Social Security Administration (SSA) database. The SSA estimates that the records of at least 12.7 million U.S. citizens in its database contain errors that could result in a “no match.” Last October a federal judge issued an order stopping the government from enforcing the rule, finding that it would cause irreparable harm to both innocent workers and employers.

In addition, the SAVE Act’s deportation-only provisions do nothing to solve the country’s immigration problems, and will subject many innocent people including children, asylum seekers, and victims of domestic violence and human trafficking to harassment, prolonged incarceration and abuse.

Americans want sensible solutions to the country’s immigration problems based on economic demands, labor priorities and constitutional protections. The SAVE Act amounts to nothing more than an assemblage of unsuccessful, ill-conceived proposals that will only worsen the problems. Our members of Congress must stay strong and oppose this ill-advised legislation.

GABRIEL PALMER-FERNANDEZ

Boardman