http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3050160

Article Last Updated: 9/21/2005 10:02 PM


GAO: Identity fraud rampant
Feds failing to provide verifiable papers
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
LA Daily News

Rampant identity fraud continues to hinder efforts to verify employees' immigration status in the U.S. despite eight years of federal promises to fix the problem, a federal audit released Wednesday says.
The increasing use of fake documents also is making it harder for immigration officials to enforce workplace laws, the Government Accountability Office found.

In 2004, three employers were threatened with sanctions for failing to properly verify a worker's eligibility - compared with 419 the previous year. Arrests in that time declined 84 percent.

Meanwhile, a 1997 proposal by the federal government to curb deception by limiting the types of documents an employee is allowed to present went nowhere. The Department of Homeland Security said the plan is under review, but gave no timeline for finishing it.

"The current employment verification process has not fundamentally changed since its establishment in 1986, and ongoing weaknesses in the process have undermined its effectiveness," auditors wrote.

Now, as Southland Republican lawmakers seek to expand a volunteer program that helps companies prove their employees are legal U.S. residents or citizens, investigators warned that the failure to address long-standing problems could undermine its success.

Currently, the Department of Homeland Security runs the Basic Pilot Program - which began in California and now allows employers in all 50 states to voluntarily check a worker's Social Security card or other documents against government records.

But auditors noted that the program is unable to determine whether an employee is using someone else's Social Security card. While that could be fixed by using fingerprints or biometric checks, the Department of Homeland Security hasn't done that yet.

About 4,200 employers use the program, which equals about 22,000 work sites across the country, immigration officials said Wednesday. State-by-state numbers were not available, but officials said California ranks second after Texas with the most volunteers.

A bill by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside, would make the program mandatory. Calvert said in a statement Wednesday that he agrees with the GAO findings that the government must address document fraud in order for a permanent, mandatory program to succeed.

"There is a growing consensus in America that we must improve our employee verification system and turn off the job magnet, which is the major cause of illegal immigration," Calvert said. "I would like to see their recommendations implemented by the Department of Homeland Security."

Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, a supporter of Calvert's bill, said, "The GAO has confirmed what we've been preaching for years. Now we need to do something about it."

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, who has advocated development of a tamper-free Social Security card that employers can use to verify a worker's eligibility, said in a statement, "It's obvious that the current system is too jumbled, too old-fashioned and too understaffed to function effectively.

"In a post-9-11 world, that is unacceptable."