A reader, performing the best function a reader can perform: keeping us on our toes. After agreeing with my desire to unhook employers from their employees’ tax and health-care issues, my reader asks: “However, do you also favor severing the connection between employers and employees’ immigration status? I have long thought that this (like the others) is a burden employers should not have to bear.”

Having formerly supported Mark Krikorian’s “attrition” argument for dealing with illegal immigration–make employers check status, and punish those who don’t–I think I am fairly caught out here. On reflection: Yes, as a matter of principle, I think it is the federal government’s business to keep trespassers out of the country, not the business of private employers.

On the other hand, I think there is some social obligation on an employer–towards his employees, to say the least of it–to try not to hire fugitive felons, escaped lunatics, pyromaniacs (in a firework factory), child-sex offenders (in an elementary school) and so on. Some scrutiny of a person’s background is a proper part of the hiring process, and I don’t see why some minimal standards of scrutiny shouldn’t be imposed by law–including a swipe of the person’s social security card. That’s a long way from employer withholding and health-care provision, though.