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Jun 02 2006

Have a Donut: Protect the Border

Posted at 10:57 am under Borderline Idiocy

Apparently, Dunkin Donuts (great Donuts, awful coffee) is tired of being the butt of illegal alien jokes, and have started to (note STARTED TO) verify the legal residence of their employees.

Dunkin’ Donuts is requiring all of its franchisees to participate in the Basic Pilot Program, which allows employers to verify a worker’s status using online databases from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

The company chose to participate in the program partly because it sometimes receives complaints from customers who assume its workers — especially those whose first language isn’t English — are in the United States illegally.

Some advocates for immigrants dislike the program because they say the databases contain errors, which could lead to people being unfairly fired.

“There’s just so many ways for immigration information to be misclassified, so until there are the right safeguards for a person to review the data that’s in there, we’re very concerned,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “The bigger point here is that we can pour all kinds of money and effort into enforcement like this, but unless we fix the immigration system we’re never really going to fix the problem.”

Actually, the “errors” are easy enough to fix. You either have a green card or you don’t. You either have a VISA or you don’t. If you don’t? Bye bye! No confusion or complications necessary. Will Amir Al Saddir appear 50 times in the list? Maybe. Might you have an Amir Al Saddir on your employment rolls? Maybe. Is he the same one? Maybe not. All he has to do is show you his VISA.

Problem solved. Of course, the MO of those against immigration reform seems to be to just say that every single solution is unworkable, impractical, and impossible. This is a very simple fix. Will it solve the problem? By itself, obviously not. But if a bunch of employers who historically love hiring illegals would follow suit, it may put a dent. If all these folks who (cough) do the jobs Americans won’t do can’t find jobs, maybe they won’t come here in the droves they are.

I know. This isn’t going to accomplish that right away, but you have to start somewhere, and perpetual kvetching about what won’t work isn’t solving the problem.

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2 Responses to “Have a Donut: Protect the Border”

  1. Vidiot Says:
    June 2nd, 2006 at 1:46 pm

    This is weird. Every job I’ve had, without exception, (even the brief stint at Arby’s when I was in high school and temp jobs in college) verified my work eligibility and identity with my driver’s license, Social Security card, passport, or some combination thereof.

    I’m surprised that DD doesn’t do the same…but re-reading the story you link to makes me notice that they’re not saying that DD doesn’t verify, but rather that they’re requiring the franchisees to verify this stuff electronically. Still a better step, as it would presumably cut down on the use of forged paper.

  2. Vinny Says:
    June 2nd, 2006 at 1:51 pm

    That struck me as odd also. I almost imagined someone walking in with a napkin. On it in sharpie was written, “Legal”

    At that point they were hired because they had provided proof.

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