This issue takes me back to my old days with the Raise the Minimum Wage Coalition. I still keep an eye on labor issues and I've always been a big fan of the immigrant population in this country. That's why I'm so disturbed by the jingoistic movements happening around government databases designed more to fire first and check the facts later than to verify that people are legal to work in U.S.

Rep. Galloway is is moving two bills to advance the e-verify system here in Pennsylvania, HB 1502 and HB 1503, both of which pertain to construction companies. If you aren't familiar with e-verify, it's a federally run system that supposedly checks workers legal status by running the social security numbers they gave through a database.

The ACLU, for example, opposes its use. There are plenty of accounts out there that show the system isn't ready for primetime and will lead to workers losing their jobs even if they actually have the legal right to work.

Rep. Galloway is a Democrat. Judging by his website, he wants to be viewed as a legislator standing up for workers, but progressives don't support legislators that pit workers against workers. Pushing HB 1502 and 1503 out there could easily motivate progressives in Pennsylvania to put up someone to run against him 2010. He's only on his 2nd term, after all. It's too early to start infuriating your backers now.

And one has to ask, why the heck is Rep. Galloway trying to move this legislation when it's clearly not a system that's ready for use? Why does he think he should make it a priority to get workers fired? Why does he think it makes sense to slow down getting people hired when we should be doing everything we can to make it easy for employers to put folks to work?