Immigrant backers rally at Social Security office
By PATRICK McGEE
Star-Telegram staff writer

Special to the Star-Telegram/Brian Lawdermilk

State Rep. Roberto Alonzo was among about a half-dozen demonstrators at the protest Friday. DALLAS -- A small band of pro-immigrant groups rallied outside the Social Security Administration's Dallas office Friday and called on the agency to keep its data out of immigration enforcement efforts.

About half a dozen demonstrators, including state Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, delivered letters asking the administration not to allow its "no match" letters to become part of immigration enforcement.

The administration mails the letters to workers and employers when the employees' names do not match the Social Security numbers they filed with their employers. Under current law, the administration's no-match database is not available to immigration officials.

And it should stay that way, said Gene Lantz, a member of Jobs with Justice, a national workers rights group, who attended Friday's demonstration.

"I'm asking Social Security to stay in the Social Security business as it was originally intended," Lantz said.

Immigration officials have tried unsuccessfully to get access to the administration's no-match database to help them identify companies that employ illegal immigrants. But they have been blocked by laws that say the letters are confidential.

Last year, John Chakwin, special agent in charge of the Dallas office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified at a congressional committee hearing in Plano that ICE could do a better job of enforcement if it had access to the data.

No access

Congress has not granted that access. But widespread perceptions that ICE has access to the data formed this year when the Homeland Security Department announced a crackdown in August on companies that hire illegal immigrants.

The increased workplace enforcement has not happened yet.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued an injunction that prevents it, at least temporarily. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the crackdown would cause too much hardship for law-abiding businesses and employees.

"We want the restraining order to be permanent," Lantz said.

Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter said his agency has been sending the no-match letters to workers since 1970 and to employers since 1994.

He said that about 140,000 no-match letters will probably not be sent this year because of Breyer's ruling

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