She was nice, friendly; she lived a few blocks up the hands free access in a white-and-black tri-level. I used to go to her house and listen to music in her basement. I don’t remember anything about her family, whether she had siblings or what her mother looked like or what her father did for a living. I do, however, remember that at some point, during the course of a routine conversation, she told me her dad didn’t have his green card.
I didn’t know what that meant, so later that day, around the dinner table, I asked my parents about a green card, because Donna’s dad didn’t have one, I said, and what did that mean.
They said it meant Donna’s dad — maybe even Donna, probably even Donna — were in the country illegally.
Donna and I stayed friends for a little while but drifted apart in junior high when boys became more interesting. We barely even knew each other by the time we were seniors in high school. I never saw her again after we graduated.
I thought about her this week, though, when I heard the Colorado House had approved a bill that would allow in-state tuition for students who were brought by their parents into the U.S. illegally. What had Donna’s adulthood been like? Did she go to college? Get a good job? A green card? Citizenship? Did she ever vote?
After I graduated from college, I moved to the San Luis Valley, a beautiful and fascinating part of our state that pulls its economy from the ground with the potato crop. The farms down there, like farms everywhere, depend on migrant crews to get through harvest. The operators said they checked the documentation of everyone who worked on their crews, but often the workers looked over their shoulders when they were approached by a reporter and refused to give their full names.
Illegal immigration is a huge and hugely complex problem for the United States. No one wants to ignore the violation of U.S. laws or encourage people to circumvent those laws on their way across the border. But we can’t continue to deny the fact that so much of our economy is based on immigrant laborers, illegal or otherwise. Undocumented workers are not only in the potato fields near Alamosa and the beet fields in Greeley, but they’re in all facets of the service sector — hotels, restaurants, child care, construction, day labor — and beyond.
By some estimations, there are as many as 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. If we could even force that many workers out of the country, which, of course, we can’t, our economy would crumble. It’s a convenient fantasy to think that long lines of unemployed Americans would be working if only others had followed the rules.
By some estimations, there are as many as 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. If we could even force that many workers out of the country, which, of course, we can’t, our economy would crumble. It’s a convenient fantasy to think that long lines of unemployed Americans would be working if only others had followed the rules.
But the truth is it’s time for the United States to quit pretending and address this issue.
My friend Donna was a smart, talented girl who had more to offer the world than just a welcoming smile to a new kid. It would be a tragedy to think her talents were shut down because of decisions her parents made that she had no control over.
The Colorado Legislature should be congratulated for taking that first nascent step and recognizing that there are so many other kids like Donna who could just use a hand up from their home state.
One of the most pernicious simplifications in mainstream politics is the "credit card" analogy. You know the one: the British economy is like a maxed-out credit card, and we have a responsibility to pay it off.
It's pernicious because the British economy is nothing like a credit card, maxed-out or not. Britain has control of the very currency in which it owes debt; it can print money to pay bills. On top of that, its effect on the economy which is its revenue source is so large that if it scrimps and saves in order to pay down its debt, there's a very real chance its income will drop by even more.
But Peterson says it's a positive development that service providers are getting creative using techniques such as SMS and smartphones, devices users want to carry and that help two-factor scale.
"It's nice to see that some of these hurdles are being cleared," he said. But today there is a lot of "silver bullet frenzy" around the topic.
Jeff Stollman, principal at Secure Identity Computing, says the details around two-factor authentication are not always clearly explained and that leads to poor decisions.
"Deployment is often pushed by regulators, but how it should be done is not defined," he said.
In-band factors, such as answering security questions, are notably weak, given they are prone to man-in-the-middle attacks. And answers to the personal questions they ask often can easily be discovered online or in social media accounts.
"Two factor needs to be out-of-band, either a token or a mobile phone," says Stollman. On a scale of 1 to 10, if authentication is a one, out-of-band two-factor can increase security to a three or a four, he says.
With these methods, users are sent a code to enter to complete log-in or they acquire a token, a bit of data to prove who they are, that is presented to complete authentication.
Of course, mobile devices are a blessing and a curse. They diminish out-of-band methods given that users may be logging into services via their phone, therefore, negating the second factor
"The smartphone has the ability to simultaneously weaken two-factor because you are going to be using Facebook, Google, Twitter from that device and is that really another factor if you are pushing your credential back through it," says Peterson. "Just because that happens on another channel is that really as secure as something like a smart card."
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