A group of senators working on a bipartisan bill to keep undocumented immigrants out of U.S. workplaces while finding solutions for offering temporary legal status to illegal workers are likely dropping the idea of a high-tech biometric ID card, citing high costs. Instead, the AP reports the four Republican and four Democratic senators in the immigration group will seek to expand E-Verify, a barely used program offered by the federal government which allows employers to run prospective workers' information through several government databases in order to ensure employment eligibility. Unlike the ID card, which would house fingerprints and other vital information in a built-in chip, E-Verify relies on manual input, and is thus prone to human error.
Currently, use of E-Verify is fairly low. The Department of Homeland Security reports that as of March 2012, 353,822 employers were enrolled nationwide. Arizona, Alabama, and Mississippi require all employers to use E-Verify. A number of other states require it for government agencies or for private employers with government contracts. California and Illinois have statutes limiting the use of E-Verify, with the former prohibiting municipalities from mandating enrollment and the latter prohibiting enrollment altogether until the system's accuracy issues can be resolved.
These accuracy issues, accompanied by fears that required enrollment in E-Verify would discourage employers from hiring foreign but eligible workers, have civil rights groups pushing back against the program's implementation. In a talk with the CATO Institute, ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese addressed the program's pratfalls, citing the story of a U.S. citizen who lost her new job after information in E-Verify proved to be inaccurate. With an E-Verify rejection being notoriously difficult to contest, she ended up settling for a lower paying job. The problem with her records turned out to have been due to a misspelling of her name on the part of her employer. Because employers are prohibited from screening prospective workers through E-Verify prior to hiring, Calabrese says they may unfairly reject applicants with foreign-sounding last names just to avoid the hassle that an E-Verify error presents.
According to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office, the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has made significant improvements to E-Verify since 2008, but errors persist. At the time of the report, the system's accuracy rate was 97.4%, up from 92% in 2006. This still leaves a high potential for false negatives that would have a great negative impact on the lives of eligible workers. Because a vast majority of the system's errors come from issues of spelling and name consistency, foreign-born Americans and women who have changed their last names due to marriage are especially susceptible to falling victim to E-Verify's as-yet unresolved problems. Also likely to run into problems are persons who have been victims of identity theft.
Because E-Verify is a system that relies on human input and is thus prone to human error and prejudice, the best thing to do in order to ensure equal employment opportunity for all eligible workers is to follow the lead of Illinois and hold off using the system until greater accuracy can be ensured, or a better system, such as a biometric ID card, can be implemented.
The LG Nexus 4 has a 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip, while the iPhone 5 has a 1.2GHz dual core chip and the Galaxy S3 has a quad core Exynos chip (international version – the US version has a dual-core). The iPhone 5 is the slowest, but it’s still twice as fast as the 4S. The LG Nexus 4 has four cores and 2GB of RAM, compared to either 1GB of RAM and four cores, or 2GB of RAM and two cores in the GS3. The Nexus 4 carries it away.
The Nexus 4 is on Android Jelly Bean 4.2, whereas the Galaxy S3 is on 4.1. The iPhone 5 is on iOS 6, as you’d expect, and this is a nifty, user-friendly OS. If you’re after customisation options, you’ll want Android, though. One big edge that the Nexus 4 has over the Galaxy S3 is that it’ll get updates much faster, so really, it comes down to deciding between the iPhone 5 and the Nexus 4.
The LG Nexus 4 comes in 8GB and 16GB versions, but has no SD card. The Galaxy S3 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, with SD support for another 64GB, so the GS3 is the winner by yards.
The LG Nexus 4 has a 4.7” True HD IPS screen and a resolution of 1,280×768 and 318ppi. The iPhone 5 has a 4” IPS screen with a 1,136×640 resolution and a 306ppi. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the biggest, at 4.8”, with a 306ppi and a 1,280×720 resolution. Each screen has its ups and downs, and you’ll have to go for the one that suits your needs most. IPS gives the most realistic colours, whereas the Super AMOLED screen on the GS3 can look over-saturated. As the LG Nexus has IPS and is big, it’s the winner.
You should get around 15 hours of talk with the Nexus 4 and its 2,100mAh battery. The GS3 and the iPhone 5 both give you around eight hours. However, Anandtech showed that the iPhone 5 had the best battery, with the Galaxy S3 second and the Nexus 4 third.
The LG Nexus measures 133.9mmx68.7mmx9.1mm and weighs 129 grams and the Samsung Galaxy S3 is 136.6×70.6mmx8.6mm with a weight of 135g grams. The Apple iPhone 5 wins, though, as it’s smallest and has the best design; however the LG Nexus 4 wasn’t exactly hit with the ugly stick.
If you need NFC, you have the choice of the Galaxy S3 and the LG Nexus 4. If it’s LTE you’re after, you have the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S3. The GS3 has both facilities, so it has a clear advantage.
The Nexus 4 has an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p video. There’s also a 1,3MP camera at the front. The GS3 also has an 8MP camera, with LED flash and autofocus, and a 1,9MP front camera. The iPhone 5 has the obligatory 8MP rear camera with a 1.2MP front camera. Each camera has a unique feature – with the Nexus you’ve got PhotoSphere, with the iPhone 5 you can take almost unbeatable low-light pics, and the Galaxy S3 can take simultaneous stills and films. The iPhone 5 stands head and shoulders above the other two, though, with its outstanding BSI sensor.
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