Thread: KS:Immigration enforcement snares new legal residents

Immigration enforcement snares new legal residents

With BC-KS--Immigration-Summary Box

AP KANSAS CENTERPIECE

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

Associated Press Writer

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- For five years Olivia Avila worked under a false name and bogus Social Security number at the National Beef meatpacking plant in Liberal to support her family. She kept working there after obtaining legal residency two years ago.

But it was not until she went into the Social Security Administration to get credit for her earlier wages as an undocumented worker that her legal problems began -- even though a loophole in federal law allows lawful immigrants to claim both legally and illegally earned wages in determining Social Security benefit eligibility.

Avila, 51, was arrested at her job in June on six immigration-related counts after her visit to the Social Security Administration office in Wichita. Avila is now out on bond while awaiting her Oct. 16 trial on charges of using false documents to work in the United States and aggravated identity theft.

"A crime is no longer being committed -- that was the past. It does not exist," Avila said in Spanish during a brief phone interview from her Liberal home before leaving to work her shift at the meatpacking plant.

At least two such recent immigration cases involving legal residents are now being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wichita, although such prosecutions remain relatively rare. Fewer than 10 cases involving legal immigrants claiming Social Security benefits for past illegal earnings were filed within the last couple of years in Kansas.

Avila told The Associated Press she had been assured -- although she couldn't remember exactly by whom -- that she could transfer credit from her illegal wages to her new Social Security number once after she gained legal residency.

But while the current Social Security law does indeed allow her to get those earnings credited, it does not shield her from prosecution for earlier immigration-related crimes.

Jonathan Lasher, spokesman for the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, said such crimes are a "separate issue" from benefit eligibility.

Social Security benefits for illegal immigrants has long been one of the most volatile issues in the nation's immigration debate. A proposal by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., to deny immigrants Social Security benefits accrued while they were in the country unlawfully died earlier this summer along with the failed immigration reform package.

The Social Security Protection Act of 2004 tightened existing laws to prohibit illegal immigrants and their families from claiming Social Security benefits -- unless they gained legal status, according to the Social Security Administration.

"The law currently does allow that if someone gains legal status so that they now have a Social Security number that is legal, and they are authorized to work in the United States, the law does allow them to go back and get credit for any earnings they may have," said Mark Lassiter, spokesman for the Social Security Administration.

Lassiter said the now legal residents would have to document that those illegal earnings were indeed theirs before they can be posted to their new Social Security number.

In tax year 2004, the Social Security Administration was unable to credit to anybody's account $66 billion in earnings because it had 9 million W-2 forms where the name and number did not match, Lassiter said.

That resulted in roughly $8 billion in payroll taxes that went into the Social Security trust fund as a result of uncredited earnings.

Lassiter acknowledged that much of that money comes from illegal immigrants using somebody else's Social Security number to work. But he also added some of those figures can also be attributed to people who did not change their records after they married or to typographical errors by employers.

For tax year 2005, the Social Security Administration sent out 138,000 letters to employers who had "significant numbers" of employees whose Social Security numbers did not match their names, plus another 8.6 million letters to employees with mismatched names and numbers, he said.

Derek Miller, a Liberal attorney who is representing Avila, said they will base their defense on Avila's lack of criminal intent, saying she was trying to support her family.

"She is legal in the country now. She wasn't attempting to defraud anyone," Miller said.

Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas, said the recent cases involving the Social Security claims do not represent an enforcement trend by federal prosecutors. A significant number of cases are filed because the immigrant himself takes some action -- such as the filing of a government document -- that draws prosecutors' attention to their status, he said.

"Working in the United States under a Social Security number that is false or stolen is a violation of federal law," Cross said. "How could a person who has been doing that meet the legal requirements to become a resident?"

Last month, a federal jury in Wichita convicted another legal resident, Prudencio Chavez-Quintana, on seven immigration-related counts of using false documents to work in the United States, possession of U.S. government documents, misuse of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown later threw out three of those immigration-related convictions because the statute of limitations had expired on those, but otherwise he let the jury's verdict stand. Chavez-Quintana, 53, is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 10.

He faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the document fraud counts and a statutory minimum of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft.

Like the Avila case, his problems began after he went to the Social Security office in Wichita to obtain a legal number and asked that contributions from a fraudulent card be transferred to his new number. A staff member seized his bogus Social Security card.

His attorney, David Link, has asked for a new trial, arguing in court papers that the harsher penalties for aggravated identity theft was intended by Congress to be used for people who knowingly used another person's identity -- not for immigrants who contrived a Social Security number to work and by chance used a number that belonged to an actual person.

In 2004, the Bush Administration signed a proposed bilateral "totalization" agreement with Mexico that would coordinate the U.S. Social Security program with the program in the Mexico. Bush has yet to submit the controversial deal to Congress for review.

Although the United States has similar agreements with 20 other countries, the agreement with Mexico has drawn criticism from opponents who contend it would eventually cost the U.S. billions in retirement benefits and entice Mexicans to remain in the country for the 10 years it takes to be vested.

The Mexican retirement system requires 24 years before a worker can be vested, and pays out only what was contributed, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The U.S. system pays out far more to low-wage workers than they contribute, and the totalization deal, if approved, would allow partial Social Security benefits to be paid for those who worked in the United States for as little as 18 months.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said the numbers of immigrants who now try to get Social Security benefits is small because the demographics shows many of them are not yet retiring.

"Illegals are mostly 18 to 40 years of age," Camarota said. "They have to get to be 60 to 62 for this to all play out."

http://www.hdnews.net/Story/k1030_BC_KS ... 08_23_1342

I don't feel bad yet.

"Working in the United States under a Social Security number that is false or stolen is a violation of federal law," Cross said. "How could a person who has been doing that meet the legal requirements to become a resident?"

Excellent question, anyone got an answer?

Just curious... She's been here five years and still speaks NO english? And our elected idiots in Washington are still trying to convince us what great American's these illegals would become. Half of them can't speak english, the other half are criminals.

"The law currently does allow that if someone gains legal status so that they now have a Social Security number that is legal, and they are authorized to work in the United States, the law does allow them to go back and get credit for any earnings they may have," said Mark Lassiter, spokesman for the Social Security Administration.

THIS IS INSANE!!

If she committed Social Security fraud, she should not have been legal status. she was a criminal and since when do we knowing give legal status to criminals. She needs to go to jail and then be deported.

"A crime is no longer being committed -- that was the past. It does not exist," Avila said in Spanish

A perfect example of how they do NOT understand or have respect for laws. I suppose this reasoning would work for bank robbers if they returned part of the money. Obviously she wants the money she STOLE, and just how greedy and ignorant you got to be to do something like this. It's like someone going to the police station to pick up their stolen cocaine!