Section on Defamation and Privacy, Co-Sponsored by Immigration Law
Marriott Hall Salon 2, Marriott Pavilion/Lobby Level, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina
Immigration, Databases, Credentials and Privacy
The modern enterprise of immigration and nationality law requires every person presenting himself or herself at a border to be identifiable and sortable into immigration categories: is this person a citizen? if not, into what category of alien is the person properly sorted? Within the nation's borders, immigration law requires the same sort of exercise: Does this person have work authorization? Is he or she a criminal alien, absconder, or otherwise subject to deportation? These tasks require systems of identity credentials and the maintenance of large databases, with tremendous privacy implications for citizens as well as aliens. How should we think about privacy in this context? The databases currently associated with employment eligibility verification have severe data accuracy problems; proposed legislation has called for expanding them, to include employment history for every working American. The immigration records found in the National Crime Information Database, which state and local police check to identify persons to be turned over to DHS, similarly manifest huge data accuracy problems. Are these problems soluble? Finally, interior immigration enforcement implicates privacy concerns in other ways, both in relation to the source of the information DHS relies on and the privacy implications of its warrantless raids and arrests.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion
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