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Bill aims at data loophole
Immigration raids prompted Allard proposal

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
March 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Sen. Wayne Allard has introduced legislation aimed at closing a loophole in immigration enforcement.
Federal officials have said that a recent immigration crackdown at Swift & Co. meat processing plants exposed a major problem with a pilot program that's meant to help companies determine if their employees are legally authorized to work.

Under the voluntary program, employers can verify whether workers have valid Social Security numbers. But according to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, current law limits information-sharing among federal agencies.

The result is that the Social Security Administration is unable to alert law enforcement authorities when the same Social Security number is being used in multiple locations.

In the Swift case, authorities discovered that some illegal immigrants were using valid Social Security numbers belonging to other people.

In all, 1,282 Swift employees in Colorado and five other states were arrested, mostly for administrative immigration violations, and 65 faced more serious identity theft charges.

Chertoff told senators that some of the violations could have been detected earlier if Social Security officials had been authorized to share data with law enforcement.

Allard's legislation would require such sharing.

"It seems logical that we would already be doing this, but we are not," Allard, R-Colo., said in prepared remarks for a Senate speech Wednesday.

"Withholding this information effectively enables thieves to continue to perpetrate the crime of identity theft against innocent victims," Allard said.

sprengelmeyerm@shns.com or 202-408-2729