News (Noticias) Tagged ‘social security numbers’

Most of the unverified Social Security numbers of college students found by the state Department of Higher Education probably belong to people who are in Arkansas legally, Gov. Mike Beebe said Friday.

The department, following an edict from the governor to make sure illegal aliens are not paying in-state tuition to attend state colleges or universities, has checked the Social Security numbers of about 120,000 students enrolled for the spring semester.

Officials have been unable to verify about 1,500 so far and the schools are being notified, state Higher Education Director Jim Purcell said Friday.”*

For critics, it’s an Orwellian nightmare: the government signing off on every single hiring decision made in the United States.

For backers, it’s the only logical way to discourage illegal immigrants, one using the nation’s only existing, all-encompassing — and currently flawed — database to block unlawful employment entering the country.

Under it, 55 million new hires each year in the U.S. would be scrutinized for fraudulent Social Security numbers. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat and one of 32 co-sponsors of the New Employee Verification Act, on Monday noted: “Everyone agrees that illegal immigration is a major problem that the federal government must address. In addition to strengthening our border security, we need an employment verification system that works. We also need to crack down on employers that knowingly exploit these illegal immigrants.””*

Here are snippets from the introduction to the search warrant served on the Agriprocessors Inc., meatpacking plant in Postville on Monday:

“Over at least the last two years, (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has received information concerning immigration offenses at and by employees of Agriprocessors, including allegations of harboring illegal aliens… engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ undocumented aliens… document fraud… misuse of Social Security numbers… and aggravated identity theft. This affidavit sets forth some, but not all, of the information ICE and other law enforcement officers possess concerning potential violations of the above-referenced statutes and potentially other criminal laws, but rather, is a summary of evidence in ICE’s possession sufficient to establish probable cause to support this search warrant.”*

Immigration officials raided the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville today, arresting as many as 300 people.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the plant at about 10 a.m. looking for evidence of identity theft, use of stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, said Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman.

The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest such operation in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.”*

School officials in early April were served with a 21-point subpoena from Iowa Division of Labor Services seeking the records of Postville middle and high school students and information about some school employees, the district’s superintendent said.

The subpoena required school officials to provide:

- Names of all current students and students between 2005 and 2007, their ages, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.”*

Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. “*

*From: http://www.nytimes.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Su Casa Realty, one of the biggest real estate agencies catering to Hispanic immigrants in Memphis, has largely stopped selling homes to people without Social Security numbers, often a sign that they are here illegally.

Juan Romo, part owner of the Century 21 franchise, said mortgage programs for people who lack Social Security numbers aren’t likely to come back as banks clamp down on credit in response to the sub-prime housing crisis.

Also, it’s increasingly hard for illegal immigrants to keep steady jobs, he said.”*

*From: http://www.tradingmarkets.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Modesta Tadeo and her four children moved from Mexico to join her husband in Chesterfield County three years ago. Depending on where you fall politically, the family of immigrants is either “undocumented” or “illegal.” They don’t have Social Security numbers, but last Thursday night they stopped by Ramsey Memorial United Methodist Church on Hull Street Road to pay their taxes.

They started paying taxes three years ago, Tadeo says through an interpreter while waiting in line with her husband and nephew. At first, just pulling all the documents together was nerve-racking. Now it’s routine, and not just for them.

“Many people are paying their taxes,” Tadeo says.”*

*From: http://www.styleweekly.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Congressional leaders are taking extra measures to make sure the economic stimulus bill has clear language to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving tax rebate checks.

The House-passed bill has a line that makes undocumented aliens ineligible for the tax rebates, which could be $600 for individuals and $1,200 for households under the bill the House passed Tuesday. But potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants currently use individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) instead of Social Security numbers to file income tax returns, and because they are taxpayers, they could receive tax rebates. House aides say use of ITINs for tax returns by illegal immigrants may constitute tax fraud, but the IRS does not check legal status on tax returns. “*

*From: http://www.cbsnews.com/
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

As employers face increasing pressure from states and in the courts to more closely police Social Security numbers of undocumented workers, some in Texas say that’s not their job and that such action could hammer the economy.

“What if some of my best guys turn out to be illegal?” said Lisa Galvan, who runs five Luna de Noche restaurants in the Dallas area and employs 200 workers. “It is scary.”"*

*From: http://www.dallasnews.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

In response to complaints that Elgin was not doing enough to combat illegal immigration, the city unveiled a crackdown Tuesday that calls for developing closer ties with federal law enforcement agencies, screening applicants for city jobs to make sure they have valid Social Security numbers and doing random checks to make sure city contractors do not hire illegal workers.

“Our focus is the safety and security of the people in Elgin,” said Susan Olafson, a city spokeswoman.”*

*From: http://www.chicagotribune.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

When Air Force veteran Marcos Miranda had his identity stolen, he went from being a valued customer and employee to a government statistic — one of thousands of identity theft victims caught up each year in the crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Identity theft has been a growing worry nationwide, but a rise in federal prosecutions against immigrants offers a new wrinkle on the problem. As the government develops more sophisticated electronic employment verification systems, undocumented workers are assuming real names and Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens like Miranda to thwart detection at workplaces, to get driver’s licenses and to obtain credit.”*

*From: http://www.cjonline.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor has sponsored a new bill aiming to limit illegal immigration, but even he acknowledges it still needs work.

The SAVE Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-North Carolina, would add more border patrol agents, increase enforcement on those applying for jobs with mismatched Social Security numbers and buy advertisements to highlight the new get-tough effort in Latin America. However, Pryor told reporters on a conference call Wednesday the bill only mirrors one offered in the House and needs work that might not happen in the waning session this year.”*

As a national debate over immigration rages, Maine’s policy of granting driver’s licenses to nonresidents and people with no proof of legal residency is coming under closer scrutiny.

The Secretary of State’s office says active driver’s licenses are currently issued to 2,521 people who have no Social Security numbers, meaning they could be in the United States illegally.
“*

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) abandoned its attempt to enforce its proposed “no match” rule that would improperly use social security records for immigration enforcement. In a late Friday afternoon court filing the day after Thanksgiving in federal court in San Francisco, DHS requested that a lawsuit challenging the rule be put on hold until March 2008. The government plans to publish a revised rule in December 2007 that it claims will pass legal muster.

The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and labor groups to block the proposed “no match” rule which would require employers to penalize or fire U.S. citizens and legal workers whose social security numbers don’t match up with the Social Security Administration (SSA) database. The lawsuit charges that the SSA database is fundamentally flawed and error-prone, and that the rule would result in the firing of countless legal workers as well as discrimination against those who look or sound “foreign.”

Last month, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer issued a preliminary order stopping the government from enforcing the proposed rule – which would affect more than eight million workers – finding that it would cause irreparable harm to both innocent workers and employers.

The SSA’s own Inspector General found that more than 70% of the discrepancies in the SSA database belong to native-born U.S. citizens. Discrepancies between workers’ social security numbers and SSA records can result from many innocent factors including clerical errors, name changes due to marriage or divorce, or the common use of multiple surnames.

The statements below can be attributed to the following participants in the lawsuit:

John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO:
“The Bush administration essentially admitted that the rule is unlawful. We’ve said all along that DHS had no authority to adopt this rule, which is just another Bush anti-worker initiative. As Judge Breyer found, more than half a million working women and men would have been affected by the rule, and many risked being fired even though fully authorized to work.”

Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and one of the attorneys in the lawsuit:
“The government saw the handwriting on the wall and abandoned its failed effort to defend this rule. But DHS is continuing down this disastrous path of punishing citizens and legal workers by using the fatally-flawed database. DHS should finally abandon this illegal approach instead of repeating the same mistake.”

Marielena Hincapié, Staff Attorney and Director of Programs at NILC:
“No matter how DHS alters its rule, any use of a social security mismatch to assume immigration status will trap workers in a bureaucratic nightmare and punish them unfairly. Employers should recognize that the government’s decision not to defend the illegal DHS rule means that businesses must not apply it or they would risk legal challenges by employees who would suffer discrimination and be adversely affected.”

Sharon Cornu, Executive Secretary Treasurer, Alameda County AFL-CIO:
“The illegal DHS rule harms workers and is a thinly-veiled effort to attack the wages and working conditions of the American workforce.”

In addition to the AFL-CIO, which is represented by the law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP, other parties bringing the lawsuit include the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California, NILC, as well as the San Francisco Labor Council and the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, represented by Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld.

In addition to Guttentag and Hincapié, lawyers on the case include Scott Kronland, Stephen Berzon, Jonathan Weissglass, Linda Lye and Danielle Leonard of Altshuler Berzon LLP; Jonathan Hiatt, James Coppess and Ana Avendaño of the AFL-CIO; Jennifer Chang, Mónica M. Ramírez, and Omar Jadwat of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; Alan Schlosser and Julia Mass of the ACLU of Northern California; Linton Joaquin and Monica Guizar of NILC; and David Rosenfeld and Manjari Chawla of Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld.

Legal documents and other information about the lawsuit can be found at: www.aclu.org/nomatch “*

Everyone has something to say (don’t you?): Read more quotes

“Siding with labor unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco barred a government rule that would have required employers to fire workers whose Social Security numbers do not match those on the government’s computers.

Assuming that such a complicated case can drag on in the courts, Leitz reckons that a decision could come in six months, and that would be right in the middle of the growing season at his 1,300-acre farm in southwest Michigan.

And if the court takes the government’s side, Leitz also figures he could find himself in a serious fix.”*

“One of the biggest problems that prompted the judge to halt DHS’s plan is the size and complexity of the federal records involved. Each year the Social Security Administration (SSA) processes more than 250 million wage reports from employers. The information is used to determine future Social Security, disability, and survivor benefits for each eligible worker. Last year, an estimated 4 percent of the wage reports had an employee’s name that didn’t match the corresponding Social Security number – that’s about 8 million mismatches. In total, the SSA has 435 million records in its database. A 2006 report by the SSA’s inspector general found a total of 17.8 million of those records contained errors.

Advocates of using Social Security numbers to discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants contend it is in all workers’ best interest to correct any inconsistencies, since that database will determine future benefits.”*

“A federal judge in San Francisco barred the Bush administration today from threatening to prosecute businesses for knowingly employing illegal immigrants if they fail to fire workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match government records.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a nationwide preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing the so-called no-match rule, which was scheduled to take effect last month but was blocked by temporary restraining orders from Breyer and another judge. Today’s order remains in effect until a suit by labor unions challenging the rule goes to trial sometime next year or until a higher court intervenes.”

“A U.S. federal court judge on Monday extended an order preventing the Department of Homeland Security from launching a controversial new program to root out illegal immigrants in the nation’s workforce.

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, after a two-hour hearing, extended a temporary restraining order for 10 days while he prepares a decision on the legality of the department’s efforts.

Breyer’s order also blocked the Social Security Administration from sending out 140,000 letters to employers with employees whose names don’t match their Social Security numbers.”

“A court will soon decide whether the Department of Homeland Security can go ahead with a crackdown on illegal workers. DHS wants to hold employers accountable if their workers’ Social Security numbers can’t be proved valid. Employers fear the new rule could put them out of business and farmers feel especially vulnerable.

The potential for problems can be seen in a visit to Fred Leitz’s farm in southwest Michigan, where all but a few of the seasonal employees are Hispanic. Based on industry estimates, Leitz says he can only assume that as many as 70 percent are undocumented.”

“On that Capitol Hill, the Department of Homeland Security has unveiled a 26-point initiative that, among other things, requires all employers to terminate workers who use fake Social Security numbers.

“We know that people in the Latino community are really scared. You can see it, walking on the streets. People are selling their houses. They are leaving,” said Julianna Stout, 27, who edits a Spanish language publication called El Nacional de Oklahoma.

“They aren’t just going to another state; they are going back to their countries of origin, which is not a good thing. It’s not good for the economy,” she added.”

“The 2004 film “A Day Without a Mexican” was a political satire: an exaggerated fantasy about what would happen in California if all the immigrant workers suddenly disappeared. But now it seems that life may imitate art. Federal immigration authorities are readying a new enforcement tool that could indeed, if applied effectively, all but cripple the California economy.

A new fence? A massive influx of Border Patrol agents? A fleet of airborne drones? No. The new weapon is a simple two-page letter that will go out next month to companies whose employees’ names and Social Security numbers do not match those on record at the Social Security Administration.”

“The U.S. has tried many tactics in its campaign to thwart illegal immigration — border fences, additional Border Patrol agents, cameras, motion sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles. The focus on flashy technology and beefed-up manpower has ignored one little-known program: the Social Security Administrations SSA no-match letter program. But with new rules from the Bush administration due any day now, the program will require employers to fire undocumented workers, making it the weapon that could finally make a dent against illegal immigration. Unintended consequences of the program promise to also cause serious economic harm.

Every year, the SSA sends out more than 100,000 no-match letters to employers with at least 10 workers whose reported Social Security numbers either do not exist or do not match the names on the SSAs records. In a small number of cases, no-matches are legitimate clerical errors or instances where a worker has changed his or her name. But the majority of workers listed in no-match letters are undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. illegally.”

“People clamoring for a crackdown on illegal immigration got their wish with the Bush administrations announcement of sweeping new enforcement measures that will force employers to fire the millions of illegal workers they now employ.

“We strike at that magnet” of jobs, said Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, announcing a new rule holding employers liable for workers whose Social Security numbers do not match government records. The new rule, announced last week, takes effect in 30 days.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., predicted a “catastrophe” in her states $32 billion agriculture industry as the new rules become effective with the fall harvest. But the proposal met no opposition from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who issued a statement saying, “Securing our border remains a top priority for the New Direction Congress.”"