According to an Associated Press story that just moved, 16,727 employers verify their workers' legal-immigration status through a system called the Electronic Employer Verification System. Immigration legislation pending in the Senate, reports the AP, "would require that Social Security numbers, identification and other information supplied by all U.S. workers be run through the electronic system." Only, the law's not enforced with much rigor.

If that bill becomes law, within 18 months of its passage employers have have to check all new hires using the system. Then they have three years to go back and check the status of all their previous hires, no matter how long they've been on the payroll. Which pretty much everyone says is impossible. Among those naysaying in the AP piece is Di Ann Sanchez, vice president of human resources at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport:

[She] anticipates a bottleneck when the airport has to ensure its 1,800 employees are legal -- even those employed for decades.

"If you've got all these employers hitting that system, is the system reliable to do it and not come back with a false negative or be so overloaded that it won't allow employers to hire as quickly as we need to?" Sanchez said.

Even some in the government says the system won't work. Yeah, like that's gonna stop anyone. --Robert Wilonsky

• News