Right to change worker verification

I, for one, am grateful to our Illinois General Assembly and Gov. Blagojevich for amending the Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act by prohibiting employers from enrolling in the federal employment verification system (E-Verify) at this time. What Rep. Roskam and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff did not point out in their statements is that the new Illinois law does provide for compliance with the federal law once the government provides for a statistically reliable system. The current system is badly flawed because it has estimate error rates of 5 to 10 percent, too high when it comes to such an important issue as fair treatment of all employees. When the stakes are so high, we need to know that employees are not being misidentified or subject to unfair treatment. The Illinois law requires that the accuracy of the system be at 99 percent, a proven and acceptable statistical level for such an important civil liberties and human rights issue.

It should also be noted that the Illinois Senate voted 42 to 8 to pass the Illinois law. Only eight Republicans voted against, eight did not vote and five voted for the Illinois law. Rep. Roskam seems to be unfairly blaming Democrats when the law had bipartisan support.

Richard Nogaj

Wheaton