Workers Who Use Fake Social Securities Can’t Be Fired
Fri, 06/20/2008 - 11:11 — Judicial Watch Blog


For the second time this week an appellate court has reversed a lower court decision to rule in favor of those who violate the nation’s immigration laws, this time making it illegal to fire undocumented workers who use fake Social Security numbers to get their job.

On the heels of an Idaho Supreme Court ruling that said an illegal immigrant can still be a legal resident entitled to free public medical care, a federal appellate court in California said that employees can’t be fired merely because they use fake Social Security numbers.

The case involves 48 Los Angeles janitors who submitted Social Security numbers that differed from the numbers on the government’s federal database. In other words, they used fake numbers to get a job they weren’t entitled to. The janitorial company, Aramark, gave the illegal workers three days to clear up the problem but only 15 did. The other 33 were fired.

A federal judge sided with Aramark but the janitors appealed to the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The notoriously liberal court ordered Aramark to rehire the janitors with back pay, saying employees can’t be fired merely because the Social Security number they submit differs from the number on the government files.

In its decision, a three-judge panel wrote that a Social Security discrepancy “does not automatically mean that an employee is undocumented.â€