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Sens Irate Over ICE Raids' Impact -- on Business
Senators angry over the recent six-state "identity theft" raids by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently held a closed-door meeting with the agency's chief, according to AP.
Their concerns appear to center not around the arrest and detainment of the thousand or so workers who were never charged with crimes, but how DHS treated their employer, a large meat-packing company who had participated in a DHS-sponsored worker identity program, the news service reports today.
The identity program, known as "Basic Pilot," screens for workers using fake Social Security numbers. It does not verify that a valid Social Security number is being used by its rightful owner.
"I can't think of a system that would be better designed to fail," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told a reporter.
"[W]e need to have a clear understanding with the business community," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). "I think it's very unclear now."
DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged problems with the program, AP says.
Comments (2)
samg wrote on January 24, 2007 9:26 PM:how come you don't identify the big meat packing company. it's swift. that's no secret. it was in all the newspapers at the time of the raid.
markg8 wrote on January 25, 2007 9:43 AM:And what did DHS do to Swift? This story is very incomplete. I'm guessing the program was set up with corporate cooperation and promises to the company that went out the window when DHS found it politically expedient to disrupt their business by rousting their employees effectively shutting down the plant(s).
If this program doesn't verify that a valid Social Security number is being used by its rightful owner then what does it do? What's it's purpose?
It looks like for the first time in my life I have to agree with Cornyn. If the program was sold on a beneficial or benign basis to business and then the information collected was abused to screw them to get Lou Dobbs off their backs for a day then yeah there's no better way to guarantee failure.
But Swift and the other meatpackers are no bargain. Those used to be wellpaying union jobs with benes. Nowadays they're nasty, brutish assembly lines with little OSHA oversight, lousy pay and benefits. That's the how and why they hire illegals without any rights.