Federation for American Immigration Reform
Washington, DC 20011
September 18, 2002

The Hon. E. Clay Shaw, Jr.
Chairman, House Social Security Subcommittee
B-316 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6353

The Hon. George Gekas
Chairman, House Immigration, Border Control and Claims Subcommittee
B-370B Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6217

In connection with the hearing that you jointly are holding on September 19, 2002 on Protecting Integrity of Social Security Numbers, I would appreciate your consideration of the views of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Shortly after the tragic terrorist attacks last year FAIR issued a blueprint outlining several urgently needed measures to protect homeland security.  Recently, on the anniversary of the attacks, we issued a report card on the progress towards adopting these earlier recommended measures.  In that report card, we singled out the significance of the actions taken by the Social Security Administration (SSA) toward improving our national security.

In particular, two actions merit the recognition and strong support of Congress and the American public.  First, the decision by SSA to stop issuing social security cards to aliens in order to satisfy the requirements of some state departments of motor vehicles for Social Security Numbers (SSNs).  The prior practice meant that the SSA was issuing SSNs to aliens who were illegally in the country to facilitate their applications for state-issued driver’s licenses.  The tragic effects of that policy were revealed when it became clear that all 19 of the 9/11 terrorists had state-issued driver’s licenses, some of them from multiple states.  Under the circumstances, we strongly urge each of the subcommittees to underscore your support for sustaining the current practice of SSA in this regard.

Second, the SSA has finally begun to insist on the need to reestablish the integrity of the SSN as an identifier for payroll purposes.  It is a well-documented fact that counterfeit document operations have proliferated in the period since adoption in 1986 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) prohibition against hiring illegal aliens.  One of the most frequently counterfeited documents has been the Social Security card.  This abundance of fraudulent documentation has made it difficult for employers—even the vast majority who have no intention of hiring illegal aliens—to discern the authenticity of the work eligibility documents presented by prospective employees. 

The SSA’s failure in the past to compare the SSNs on payroll documents with the SSNs they have issued has actually encouraged growth in the numbers of employers willing to hire illegal aliens.  Beginning with agriculture and meatpacking industries and spreading throughout the hospitality industry, employers have been so motivated by the spread of illegal alien hiring by their competitors and the by the lack of enforcement against illegal employment that many have looked the other way and become fully dependent on cheap illegal employees.  As a consequence, illegal immigration has been further encouraged, and qualified American and legal resident workers have been displaced as once prevailing wages have been dramatically depressed.

While the SSA has offered a free online service to employers to verify the work eligibility of potential employees, there has been no real incentive to use the service.  That may change now as a result of the SSA’s recent actions systematically to notify employers of mismatches between SSNs listed on payroll documents and the SSNs issued.

Complaints that this program of advising employers of no-matches may cost legal workers their jobs in unfounded, because the notification process specifically advises employers that they should allow the employee to reconcile with the SSA any possible data error that has led to a false no-match notification before a no-match notification leads to the termination of employment.

Once again, we applaud the Administration and the SSA for taking these steps.  Our concern, however, is that if they could be accomplished as policy changes, they similarly could be discontinued by a new policy decision.  We urge you to assure that this program of issuing no-match letters to employers becomes a permanent requirement.

There remain, however, two outstanding actions that would help to buttress the new SSA program.  The first of these would apply the law sanctioning employers who continue to ignore the SSA alerts that employees do not have valid SSNs.  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should be required to begin immediately fining businesses that flagrantly continue to ignore the SSA notifications.

Secondly, the SSA has long maintained a policy of non-cooperation with the INS in identifying workplaces with potential illegal alien employees.  This has changed somewhat in the Basic Pilot employment verification system mandated by the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.  In that program, the SSA was required to verify SSN data and forward employment data on foreign-born workers to the INS for verification of work eligibility status.  Although that program is still ongoing, its trial period has been completed and successfully evaluated by an outside contractor.

Until such time as Congress enacts the Basic Pilot program as a permanent fixture in the nation’s efforts to regain control over its borders, the SSA should require that no-match notifications to employers be retained by the employer for potential audit by the INS at the time that it may investigate whether employers are in compliance with the requirements of the IRCA prohibition against hiring illegal alien workers.

The nation must never again return to the luxury of ignorance about the threat of international terrorism, and it can never relax in a hope that all foreigners will respect our sovereign right to have our nation’s immigration policy respected.  Instead, we must take the necessary steps to deter both threatening terrorists and illegal immigration by gaining control over our borders and denying safe haven to those who enter or stay in the United States illegally.  Assuring the integrity of the SSN system, because it is the universal identifier for may purposes in our society, is critical to achievement of this objective.

We trust the members of the House Social Security Subcommittee and the House Immigration, Border Control and Claims Subcommittee will agree that the recent advances in restoring integrity to the SSN system must be locked in place so that they are not subject to erosion as a result of pressures from whoever has the attention of any given Administration at the moment.

Sincerely,

Dan Stein
Executive Director