Thread: Social Security card plan aims to curb fraud

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Social Security card plan aims to curb fraud

By Frank James
Washington Bureau
Published May 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Congress is moving to replace the paper Social Security cards issued to 280 million Americans with plastic, harder-to-counterfeit versions to try to curtail identity theft and the use of Social Security cards and numbers by some undocumented immigrants to obtain jobs.

Privacy and immigration advocates as well as business groups have concerns about the proposed cards. Critics fear the cards could become de facto national IDs and eventually play the role that identity papers have played over history in repressive societies. There also is worry that the proposal could mean trouble for immigrant workers and large criminal fines for employers.

If the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2005 became law, every person seeking a job in the U.S., citizen and undocumented immigrant alike, would have to present the card to any prospective employer. Job applicants would have to provide more than a Social Security number--they would need to present the card itself.

The bill has the support of at least two powerful House committee chairmen, and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who as majority whip holds the chamber's third-highest leadership post, is one of 36 co-sponsors. Others include several Texas and California Democrats.

But Ron Bonjean, spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), had no immediate comment on the bill "pending review of the legislation," he said Thursday.

Proponents hope the card also would end the difficulties endured by victims of identity theft like one San Diego resident. The woman, a U.S. citizen who asked that her name not be revealed, said Thursday that her name and Social Security number were misappropriated by an undocumented immigrant who used the number to secure jobs and credit.

The immigrant stole from at least one employer, defaulted on credit and had an arrest warrant for an assault, all of which caused more than a decade of problems for the victim because that information was associated with her Social Security number.

"At least there are people thinking about making the Social Security number and those cards more secure. I'd like to see that," she said. "Because a piece of flimsy paper that anybody could [steal] out of the mail, that doesn't have any identification except for that number and a name, is really loosey-goosey."

The front of the new card as envisioned by its proponents would have the holder's photo and Social Security number.

A machine-readable magnetic stripe on the card's back, like those on credit cards, would contain a digitized photo and the person's employment eligibility. Employers could swipe the card through a reader, and the information would be compared with an employment eligibility database to be maintained by the Homeland Security Department.

The legislation also tries to address the economic demand for undocumented immigrants. For the first time, employers who hire even one such person could face federal criminal charges punishable by up to 5 years in prison. They also could be fined up to $50,000 for every illegal immigrant hired.

10,000 new agents

The bill also would require the hiring of 10,000 additional federal immigration enforcement agents to crack down on hiring of illegal immigrants.

"If anyone who's here illegally is hoping to get a job, they're looking for a new job, they won't be able to get that job if they don't have one of these," Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) said during a recent House Judiciary subcommittee hearing as he held aloft a prototype of the card.

"And they can't have one of these unless they're here legally," Dreier said. "And so what does that say to someone who is here illegally? `I might as well go home because I can't feed my family in the U.S.'"

Dreier acknowledged, however, that his legislation probably would not cause the mass exodus of the estimated 10 million or more undocumented immigrants in the U.S. because of the economy's dependence on them.

So he supports a guest-worker program to allow many of the undocumented workers to come forward. Allowing immigration officials to register many of those people would improve homeland security because "it is a security threat to us to have literally millions of people here illegally because among them could be potential terrorists," Dreier said. And with the growing concern on Capitol Hill over identity theft--which often is facilitated by misused Social Security numbers--there is bipartisan momentum to deal a blow to such crimes. Some lawmakers view the legislation as a possible way to do that.

What's more, Dreier, the bill's chief sponsor, heads the powerful Rules Committee that sets the terms for debate on legislation once it reaches the House floor. In addition, the lawmaker perhaps most responsible for moving the so-called REAL ID legislation through Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is a co-sponsor of Dreier's legislation.

Dreier argues that his bill could be the solution to the widespread abuse of Social Security numbers.

There are 280 million active Social Security cards, with 5.4 million issued in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available. About 1.2 million of those were issued to immigrants legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Knowing that Americans might be alarmed to realize that many of them would have to get new cards under his plan, Dreier has sought to reassure them. "This will only be used by people looking for a new job," he said.

Addressing his fellow lawmakers, he added: "And as long as everyone in this room is re-elected, you won't need to have a counterfeit-proof Social Security card because you won't be looking for a new job."

Still, Dreier has not put to rest all the concerns his bill has raised. Business groups are concerned about the criminalization of employers who hire undocumented workers.

Penalties too severe?

"The penalty for failing to follow procedure or a first-time offense of knowingly hiring an individual not authorized to work in the U.S. would . . . be similar to federal penalties for assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a minor and knowingly trafficking in child pornography," said Randel Johnson, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits, in a letter to a House subcommittee.

"The answer to these issues does not lie in a Draconian system of penalties on employers but in a well-reasoned and concerted effort to address border security," Johnson said.

Privacy experts worry that the legislation could worsen the nation's burgeoning identity-theft problem.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the new card could expand the already widespread use of Social Security numbers as personal identification.

"We don't want people easily counterfeiting Social Security cards or passing around Social Security numbers," he said. "Our concern with the proposal is that this card . . . is the type of card that people might begin to carry in their wallets," a troubling prospect because that would give identity thieves more opportunities to get their hands on lost or stolen cards.

Furthermore, the legislation would make the Homeland Security Department responsible for maintaining a new employment eligibility database.

That worries privacy advocates because the agency already has sought to be exempted in certain instances from the federal Privacy Act, which restricts how federal agencies handle databases containing Americans' personal information.

Another fear, as Rotenberg put it, concerns Homeland Security becoming "this megagovernment agency that decides who gets a driver's license, who gets a job, who gets on an airplane."

National ID card worries

Critics say the new plastic card also could quickly become a national identification card despite the legislation explicitly stating that the card would not be used in that way and the card carrying the same message in large print. Merchants and others, critics say, could quickly come to rely on the card as an important form of ID.

"It's like Congress passed a law which said a feathered animal that has a big bill and walks a certain way shall not be a duck even if it quacks," said Timothy Edgar, an American Civil Liberties Union national security policy counsel.

"This is the beginning of a much larger surveillance network that the government plans to put together, ostensibly for immigration purposes," Edgar said. "But it's going to be used for all kinds of purposes to track American citizens as well as anyone else in the country. When the Social Security Act was passed [in 1935], people feared it would be used for these purposes."

Critics on both sides of the political spectrum have long worried that the Social Security card could become a national ID card and eventually play the role that identity papers have served in societies known for squelching individual liberties, such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa.

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fjames@tribune.com

More Idiotic legislation.

If the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2005 became law, every person seeking a job in the U.S., citizen and undocumented immigrant alike, would have to present the card to any prospective employer. Job applicants would have to provide more than a Social Security number--they would need to present the card itself.

Seems like the Real ID has that covered since they will require a valid SS # to get it.

[" Knowing that Americans might be alarmed to realize that many of them would have to get new cards under his plan, Dreier has sought to reassure them. "This will only be used by people looking for a new job," he said.

Addressing his fellow lawmakers, he added: "And as long as everyone in this room is re-elected, you won't need to have a counterfeit-proof Social Security card because you won't be looking for a new job."

Yes and American Jobs are so secure so folks wont be looking for jobs. I really believe everything a ploitican tells me.[/quote]


PAPERS! SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS!


Stop Identity theft like this

http://rdu.news14.com/content/headlines ... 42&SecID=2

N.C. House unanimously approves identity theft bill
5/24/2005 10:07 AM
By: Associated Press

(RALEIGH) - Government agencies would be barred from collecting Social Security numbers if they don't need them and agencies who do wouldn't be allowed to disclose them under a bill approved in the state House.

The House voted unanimously to block state and local government agencies from unnecessarily collecting Social Security numbers. When they must collect the numbers, the agencies would be barred from releasing the information to the public.

The legislation also would give consumers the right to place a security "freeze" on their credit reports. Business customers who may be at risk of identity theft due to a security breach would have to be alerted by the company.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

More costly quick-fixes. Like a plastic card cant be bought just like any other form of ID!!??!!

Quote:
The front of the new card as envisioned by its proponents would have the holder's photo and Social Security number.

Why, what a novel idea.
Why don't they stop wasting everyone's time, and just SHUTOWN THE BORDER!