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data errors would carry with it formidable

bureaucratic processes, preventing them from

problems.

working until the federal government deemed

Consider this hypothetical scenario that

their papers to be in order. It would be more

illustrates the trouble an ordinary worker

like something out of a Franz Kafka novel

might have with the EEV program: Peggy

than a sound U.S. federal policy. EEV would

Smith is a single mother of two, born and

delay or deny the employment of American

raised in the Midwest town where a new Big

workers in numerous ways.

Store recently opened. On Tuesday afternoon,

retail chain the Big Store calls Peggy to tell her

Screening Workers Screens Out Workers

it has accepted her application to work as a

Think of electronic employment verifica-

sales clerk trainee.

tion as a screen through which all workers

The new job is a coup for Peggy because she

would have to pass before they could earn a

has struggled diligently to get her high school

living. The problem is to get eligible workers

equivalency degree while making ends meet

through the screen quickly and to keep ineli-

since her husband was killed in a car crash. She

gible workers from passing through. It is

will start work the following Monday with a

hard to do both at the same time. The feder-

two-week (paid!) training course that is given

al government currently has only fragments

at the store once a quarter.

of the infrastructure for accomplishing this

On Thursday afternoon, she comes in to

goal, and the processes for doing so are rife

the human resources office, her two middle-

with flaws.

school-age children in tow, with the documen-

For example, simple errors in transcription

tation necessary for her Form I-9. Human

and data entry by employees and employers

resources enters the data into the EEV system

will create a baseline wrongful tentative non-

just before the close of business Thursday,

confirmation rate. According to a recent sur-

A nationwide

finding that Peggy is a tentative nonconfirma-

vey of employers participating in Basic Pilot,

EEV system

tion. Human resources calls her to tell her

52 percent had received at least one tentative

would send a

about the problem Friday morning, but she

nonconfirmation for a new employee caused

by data entry mistakes.29

cannot make it back to the store to collect the

substantial

written instructions on how to appeal her

Then we must consider the error rate in

number of

nonconfirmation before the weekend.

federal government databases. In December

workers--

On Monday, arriving early for training,

2006, the SSA's Office of the Inspector

Peggy is presented with instructions for appeal-

General estimated that the agency's "Numi-

native-born and

ing her nonconfirmation. The instructions tell

dent" file--the data against which Basic Pilot

legal immigrant

her to visit a Social Security Administration

checks worker information--has an error rate

office that is 30 minutes away. The SSA office is

of 4.1 percent. Every error resulted in Basic

alike--into

Pilot's providing incorrect results.30 At that

open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to

labyrinthine

5:00 p.m. Her usual shift and the training ses-

rate, 1 in every 25 new hires would receive a

bureaucratic

sions are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and she

tentative nonconfirmation. At 55 million new

hires each year,31 this rate produces about

must pick up her kids from their after-school

processes,

activities most days of the week.

11,000 tentative nonconfirmations per work-

preventing them

The EEV program's requirements do not

day in the United States--a little more than 25

permit employers to delay training or an

people per congressional district, each day of

from working

actual start date based upon a tentative non-

the working week, all year long.

until the federal

confirmation.32 Even if Big Store could delay

government

Knocking Rungs off the Ladder

her start date, Peggy does not want to forgo a

No illusions should be harbored about the

quarter's work by missing the training that

deemed their

impediments to working that this system

each new clerk trainee gets. Hoping that the

papers to be

would create if expanded to a national scale.

problem will go away, Peggy attends the Big

in order.

Even the "simple" process of clearing up basic

Store training sessions each day. Because she

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