Thread: Cracks in crackdown on illegal workers

Published Sunday | April 27, 2008
Cracks in crackdown on illegal workers
BY CINDY GONZALEZ
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2 ... d=10320725

It's a scenario that frustrates those who enforce immigration laws.

A company receives federal notice that the Social Security number of an employee doesn't correspond with other records. That can be a sign that a worker is not in the United States legally.

Some bosses ignore the letters, which are sent by the Social Security Administration, and business goes on.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is trying to enforce compliance, despite a federal court injunction last year and resistance from business and civil rights leaders.

Friday was the final day for public comment on a proposed Homeland Security rule that could force employers to fire workers who have questionable Social Security numbers. Companies that failed to follow specific instructions and deadlines pertaining to so-called no-match letters would face stiff penalties.

The proposed no-match rule is essentially the same as the rule blocked by the injunction, though Homeland Security added more analysis as a way to address some concerns of the U.S. District Court in Northern California, said department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

Homeland Security hopes the court now will lift its injunction, Kudwa said. As a backup, the government also is appealing the federal injunction, she said.

Immigration officials, meanwhile, argue that the proposed no-match rule not only would be a tool for cracking down on illegal hiring practices but also would provide "safe harbor" against prosecution for firms that are in compliance.

"For those employers that would rather turn a blind eye, we're going to enforce the law," Kudwa said.

Critics insist that the no-match regulations would result in the mass firings of legal residents and U.S. citizens and impose devastating costs on American businesses and the economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week said a consultant it hired estimated that the plan to crack down on illegal workers could cost employers more than $1 billion a year and much more in lost wages to legal workers.

The consultant projected that 2 percent of legal workers would lose their jobs because they wouldn't be able to resolve the Social Security mismatch in the specified 90-day time frame.

Compounding the problem for legal workers is a Social Security database that critics say is riddled with errors. Many discrepancies in worker tax records are the result of typos, computer errors or name changes brought about by marriage.

The National Immigration Law Center reported that of 17.8 million errors in the Social Security database that could generate no-match letters, more than 70 percent pertain to native-born citizens.

The government began sending no-match letters years ago in an effort to correct records so workers could receive benefits they earned, said Michele Waslin of the Immigration Policy Center. She said the new rule would end up sending more workers into the underground cash economy, where they would no longer contribute taxes.

Lawyers have already seen an overreaction by employers who fired workers before allowing them to rectify the situation, said Omaha attorney Amy Peck, whose clients are involved in three such cases. She said the time period allowed in the proposed rule is too short.

"Additionally, it casts a cloud of suspicion on certain minority groups," Peck said. "This will be the next wave of litigation: wrongful termination."

One case against a Council Bluffs company provides a glimpse into what sometimes happens with no-match letters.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched an investigation into illegal hiring at American Clothing Co., which sorts and sells donated goods.

According to a criminal complaint in federal court against the owner of American Clothing Co., federal agents earlier this year trailed a Hispanic worker and then began deportation proceedings when he could not prove his legal status.

The agents, with help from a confidential informant, later placed a recorded phone call to the cell phone of Daryl Leise of Omaha, the owner of the company. They also captured a face-to-face meeting on tape.

The informant asked Leise about changing a Social Security number so he could continue to work. He told Leise that he had just received his third letter from the Social Security Administration warning of mismatched tax and personal information.

Leise: "Don't worry about it."

Informant: "No problem?"

Leise: "No problem."

Agents said they heard a paper being wadded up, and laughter.

About a month later, on March 26, agents raided the company and seized three letters from the Social Security Administration.

A 2002 letter listed 154 mismatched Social Security numbers on employee wage and tax statements submitted by American Clothing. Two numbers were being used by undocumented immigrants arrested in the March raid; another was used by the informant.

A 2003 letter listed 132 employee mismatched numbers. Four were being used by illegal immigrants arrested in the raid. A 2005 letter listed 135 mismatches, 10 of which were being used by people arrested in the raid.

Leise, who has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hiring undocumented workers, did not return a reporter's phone calls. Neither did his attorney.

Leise told Immigration and Customs Enforcement that two employees were responsible for hiring. Those employees said the final say came from Leise.

Under the proposed no-match rule, employers who fail to act on the Social Security letters could be found to have "constructive knowledge" of violating the law by employing an unauthorized worker. Inaction could be used to build a case against the employer.

Companies able to document that they followed the new procedure could be offered safe harbor.

The federal government began sending no-match letters to workers in 1979 and to employers in 1994. Employers receive notice when their paperwork generates at least 10 no matches representing more than 0.5 percent of their submitted W-2 forms.

Many employers have said in the past that they were unsure what to do about the letters. Business leaders say companies face the difficulty of balancing immigration laws against the civil rights of foreign-looking workers. The employers don't want to be accused of discrimination.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said a better solution for cracking down on unauthorized employment is to require more information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

Because of privacy laws, Social Security cannot automatically provide Homeland Security with the names of employers that rack up no-match letters.

Grassley has proposed an employment verification program to allow the sharing of information while protecting confidential tax return information. Such reform, he said, would negate the need for a no-match rule.

The Grassley proposal, however, stalled in Congress, along with other immigration proposals.
• Contact the writer: cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

I've been working before I got a social security number at 16 and now I'm over 63. I've never heard of people having trouble with their social security numbers, especially at the magnitude that the writer talks about. The only thing I can take away from the story is that their all illegal if they haven't taken the time to correct their social security number.

I'd also like to know why it took the Feds about 6 years to bring this case into court?

As info, Amy Peck is "the Chosen One" for legality question for the World-Herald.

See previous post:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-112708-.html

"Additionally, it casts a cloud of suspicion on certain minority groups," Peck said. "This will be the next wave of litigation: wrongful termination."

You mean the minorities who comprise 47% of those who enter the USA illegally???

The National Immigration Law Center reported that of 17.8 million errors in the Social Security database that could generate no-match letters, more than 70 percent pertain to native-born citizens.

Any American CITIZEN would want to know if their social security number has a problem and get it corrected immediately.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt