Wired Magazine reports that a few small businesses are testing a new networked computerized system developed by the Department of Homeland Security that would determine the legal work status of potential employees, rather than relying on the current method of visually checking documents that may be fraudulent:

Many Americans focus on the border when they consider the fight against illegal immigration. But some experts say the real battle should be in the workplace to stop the hiring of people without work visas. . . . Across the country, a small group of businesses is quietly testing a Department of Homeland Security program that can check immigration status with a few clicks on the Internet.

The program will likely be at the heart of any federal immigration reform, even as critics say it needs improvement. Many businesses, however, oppose making the program mandatory because it would stop them from hiring illegal workers and force them to pay higher wages. . . .

Under the “Basic Pilot Program,” employers enter a person’s name, birth date and other data on a website. The information is then run through databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employers never learn if the individual might be in the country illegally. They simply get a “yes” or “no” on the person’s work status.

In general, I would support systems like this that would shift the emphasis on reducing illegal immigration away from border patrols (trying to treat the immediate symptoms) to making sure businesses follow the law and hire legal workers (trying to cure one cause of the larger problem).

If U.S. employers know that they cannot get away with hiring undocumented workers any longer, perhaps that will give them more incentive to hire more U.S.-born workers (in the process, reducing the pains of globalization for U.S. workers), which would cut down on the demand for cheap illegal labor, which would then give Mexicans less incentive to seek employment in the U.S. illegally.

Of course, there are still lots of issues to resolve -- e.g., the computerized system needs to have safeguards built into it so that legal immigrant workers won’t get mistakenly flagged as illegal. But combined with more structural approaches like reducing poverty in Mexico, this system could be a constructive step in reducing illegal immigration while still respecting their dignity.