Im still waiting for your informed reply, Congressman Abercrombie

Aloha,

Your argument misses some important facts.

H.R. 4088 provides for the discrepancies and mismatches that you note exist in the federal databases, and provides for their correction in section 202.a and 202.b of the bill, in addition to providing for a phase-in over a 4-year span (Sec. 201), under Title-II.

Secondly, SSA would not be involved in enforcement, only identification and notification (Sec. 202.c.2). Enforcement falls under sections 301 (Title-III) and 5202 (Title-I), and provides additional resources to existing enforcement agencies tasked with such duties.

mahalos!


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Neil.Abercrombie@mail.house.gov wrote:
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Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me expressing your opposition to H.R. 4088, the "Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act of 2007." I too share many of your concerns about this bill.

As you may know, the bill would authorize new funding for technology and manpower to secure the borders. It would also expand internal enforcement of immigration laws. The bill would mandate that all employers in the U.S. use the electronic verification system, known as either the Basic Pilot Program (BPP) or E-Verify, of Social Security Numbers (SSN).

The use of the electronic verification system has some serious problems. The Social Security Administration (SSA) would have to shift significant resources from managing benefits to enforcing immigration. Also, according to SSA, the database used for E-Verify has high error rates. About 17.8 million records contain errors related to name, date of birth, or citizenship status, and 12.7 million of those records relate to U.S. citizens. This rate of error in the SSA database alone could translate into 2.5 million people a year being misidentified as unauthorized for employment. While I support vigorous workplace enforcement, such a situation could lead to large number of U.S. citizens, who undoubtedly have a right to work, from reaching gainful employment.

Currently, the bill is before the House Committee on Homeland Security. A discharge petition has also been filed. I generally do not support moving such a major piece of legislation in this manner. Furthermore, the fact that the bill does nothing to address the matter of immigration reform, and fails to recognize the no-match problem, is cause for further concern and the use of the regular committee process.

Mahalo again for your comments. Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time

Sincerely,
Neil Abercrombie
Member of Congress