May 16, 2008

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editorial On E-Verify

From an editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Social Security's troubled E-Verify system for verifying that names and Social Security numbers match:
Rather than spend the money to create a new database that works, the states browbeat the federal government to force the Social Security Administration to do something it was never meant to do —- become an immigration enforcement agency. And as it has scrambled to make quick fixes to E-Verify, Social Security has fallen behind on its real job, determining whether elderly and disabled Americans qualify for social services and benefits they have spent years supporting through payroll taxes.

The backlog for appeals in disability cases is now more than 500 days. If the administration is forced to spend $40 billion over the next 10 years to make E-Verify work, the basic services of

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

One more "the sky is fall" piece from a liberal rag.

Anonymous said...

One more "the sky is falling" piece from a liberal rag.

Anonymous said...

the the anonymous commenter above: one (two?) more ad hominem attack?

Anonymous said...

"Rather than spend the money to create a new database that works, the states browbeat the federal government to force the Social Security Administration to do something it was never meant to do"

Missions evolve, in the 1930s when the program was created we weren't being overrun by illegal aliens that are working without authorization or SSA probably would have been set up to be involved.

All the people, newspapers, organizations that are crying about this are pro open borders and for amnesty in the first place and all the whining is just a smoke screen to not do anything about illegal immigration.

Anonymous said...

"Rather than spend the money to create a new database that works, the states browbeat the federal government to force the Social Security Administration to do something it was never meant to do"

Speaking of never meant to do, I don't believe there was an SSDI or SSI program when SSA was created.

Anonymous said...

in the 1930s, there was no such thing as "working without authorization." Read a book, turn off the Lou Dobbs.

Anonymous said...

in the 1930s, there was no such thing as "working without authorization."

Never said that, I said if that was going on when SSA was created, SSA would probably have been involved.

Maybe you shouldn't watch Oprah while reading and posting.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Oprah knows about "Operation Wetback." It's not that there weren't any Mexicans or other "aliens" in the U.S. during the 1930s, it's just that the concept of requiring government permission to work was not something anyone thought was needed. Instead, we deported a bunch of Mexicans and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. It's not as if the folks establishing SSA didn't have the opportunity to give it this role. Stop trying to rewrite history.

Anonymous said...

"Operation Wetback" the one time the U.S. government took illegal immigration serious was under Eisenhower and I think Lou Dobbs said he was the president in the 50s.

"In 1949 the Border Patrol seized nearly 280,000 illegal immigrants. By 1953, the numbers had grown to more than 865,000, and the U.S. government felt pressured to do something about the onslaught of immigration. What resulted was Operation Wetback, devised in 1954 under the supervision of new commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service, Gen. Joseph Swing.

Swing oversaw the Border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police. The object of his intense border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. The police swarmed through Mexican American barrios throughout the southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border. In 1954, the agents discovered over 1 million illegal immigrants."

Which shows that aggressive enforcement works.