Another harvest coming, more immigration delay

The Bush administration's latest attempt to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants is as suspect as the error-fraught system it must rely on.

Last week, the Homeland Security Department reissued a proposed rule that would levy penalties on companies that employ workers whose personal information does not match that of the Social Security Administration. After notification of mismatches, employers would have 90 days to clear up discrepancies or fire the employees.But, as Social Security's inspector general has highlighted, errors occur in about 17.8 million — or 4 percent — of the agency's records — errors that could generate a so-called no-match letter. In a December report, the inspector general noted that if these were used for employment verification, "the workload of SSA and (Homeland Security) may significantly increase — even if only a portion of these 17.8 million numberholders need to correct their records. ... "

Further, most of those erroneous records — about 70 percent — belong to American citizens who would still be burdened with proving their work eligibility. Among the reasons could be transposed letters or name changes because of marriage.

Clearing up errors is a good idea. The problem here is with the inflexibility of the proposed rules, the reliability of the government records and the lack of enough federal agency resources to support what will be necessary to correct the records.

The even greater problem is that the United States is heading into yet another harvest with a struggling economy that is underpinned by illegal immigration — still with no meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform. Momentum on promising new policies was dashed when the House refused to consider the Senate's earnest proposed solution.

In fact, Homeland Security was considering this no-match program last year but held off in anticipation of immigration reform. When that failed, the federal government stepped up enforcement with raids on work sites across the country. Last fall, a federal judge enjoined the no-match rule, saying Homeland Security Department did not explain its policy development well enough.

Enforcement of rules holding employers responsible for whom they hire is a worthy effort. To push forward with half a solution — based on unreliable records when the economy is struggling — is not.