Is it legal?

for an employer to make copies of the employees SSN, EAD, and Driver license?

I would think so seeing how sometimes they ask you to fax your things anyway


however, I believe they can only look at it and that is it

Yes it is.

Oh my goodness this is so crazy that you asked this, because I was just doing research about this two days ago. A family member of mine went to this seminar and found out all this wonderful information the employment process... An employer can ask to see your SSN and ID as part of the identification process, but legally they cannot make copies of your stuff, so all these people, for all these years have been fooled... Well what do you know? And you can refuse to show it to them... I'm not sure if this applies to every single job, but I know for some fields such as education, teaching etc...they cannot do this.

Employers are legally barred from telling you which documents from the I-9 that they accept, but they are not prohibited from making copies of said documents.

Every business I've been a part of has made copies of the documents. It'd be very stupid of them not to. Suppose the place gets raided by immigration and they say "You knowingly hired illegals! We're going to take you to court and shut you down!". He can say "look, this is what he offered as proof. ".

My workplace has made copies of the drivers license. Didn't matter whether someone was legal or not

The real question is why you would care if they make copies or not..
I had to email/fax copies of my documents to hr..