They "Appear" Legal?

This is absurd! If it is going on here, it is going on in your state too.

In Massachusetts, two senators have introduced a bill that would force state contractors to verify workers they hire. You know, to make sure they are here legally?

Call me stupid but, wouldn't you think they were doing that already?

Currently, federal law requires all employers to examine the documents, such as green cards or Social Security cards, that establish an employee's identity and eligibility to work in the United States. But the law only requires that the documents "appear to be genuine" and stresses that employers are not expected to be "document experts."

Those loose standards, say construction industry specialists, enabled contractors to use undocumented workers on projects that received millions of dollars from the state, including construction of dormitories at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the building of the new Middlesex County Jail. Globe reporters who checked the Social Security numbers of the workers on the public projects found that some were obviously fraudulent, including one used by a laborer that was 666-66-6666 and others that belonged to dead people.

Come on, how can the law only require that documents "appear to be genuine", what does that mean? It's just ridiculous. It's like trying to use monopoly money to buy a car, it just ain't happening! Those who do the hiring should be fired!

The bill would require employers with state contracts to check Social Security numbers on databases of valid numbers run by the Department of Homeland Security or the Social Security Administration or private databases, Tarr said.

Did you know that...

Homeland Security has already launched an initiative, known as the Basic Pilot Program, that allows employers to verify a worker's status using online databases. But that program is being used by only a small number of companies nationwide. Dunkin' Donuts has begun participating and has put up signs in shops alerting customers that employees have been screened.

No state in the country mandates that employers substantiate that their workers are legal, according to the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. Georgia recently passed a measure that would do so by July 1, 2007.

How can it be that more states aren't using the Basic Pilot Program? (Hey now I really have an excuse for going to Dunkin' Donuts). This lack of use just exacerbates the immigration problem.

I think the DHS has a tough enough job, but when they have these programs in place and nobody uses them, what good is it?

Sometimes I feel like a frustrated child and all I want to do is scream
"DO OVER", and start it over from scratch (governmentally speaking).

(HT: Laura Ingraham