Ariz Republic

Migrants forced out of jobs

Social Security cracks down on fake numbers

By Hernán Rozemberg

The Arizona Republic

July 06, 2002 12:00:00

Thousands of illegal immigrants across the country who use fake or stolen Social Security numbers to get jobs are quietly disappearing from payrolls because of a government crackdown on document fraud.

The Social Security Administration has mailed out more than a half-million letters this year, with a goal of 750,000, to employers with at least one worker showing a Social Security number that doesn't match the agency's records.

That's a jump from the average 100,000 letters the agency has mailed annually since the program began in 1993. The increase comes in part because small businesses are now also being targeted.

The letters ask employers to check into the mismatches and report back to the agency within two months. As a result, illegal immigrants who obtained jobs using fake or stolen Social Security numbers are being fired or are simply walking out, fearing being caught and getting deported. "They told us we had two days to get it cleared up or we couldn't come back to work," said a 37-year-old immigrant who was fired last month from a Phoenix social service agency. She obtained the job using a counterfeit Social Security card.

"I need to work. I have house payments, bills. Now I don't even have benefits for an operation I needed to have done," said the immigrant, who requested anonymity because of her illegal status.

Immigration lawyers in Arizona said they are getting calls and visits daily from concerned workers and employers.

Advocacy groups also report a higher volume of complaints from workers left jobless because they couldn't produce legitimate documents. Juvencio Valenzuela, an organizer with the United Farm Workers union in Phoenix, said he has heard of at least 300 firings this year.

No links to security

Social Security officials said the "mismatch" or "no-match" letters aren't tied to security or immigration concerns. They have been sent out for years, and the decision to step up the effort was made more than a year before the September terrorist attacks, officials said.

"If 9/11 had never happened, we'd still be sending these letters and in this quantity," Social Security spokesman Mark Hinkle said in Baltimore.

"It's totally unrelated to security. It's being done to improve tax reporting accuracy."

But others, including the agency's own watchdog, draw a clear connection between post-attack increased safety measures and the use of Social Security numbers.

James Huse, the Social Security Administration's inspector general, wrote in a report released in May that the agency as recently as two years ago doled out 100,000 cards to illegal immigrants. Huse concluded the terrorist attacks served as ultimate proof: Social Security number fraud is a national security concern.

"Whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, we must protect the number that has become our national identifier," Huse wrote. "The number that is the key to social, legal and financial assimilation in this country."

Huse noted that several participants in the terrorist plot obtained documents fraudulently.

Malek Mohammed Seif, a licensed pilot indicted in Phoenix last year on counts of misuse of a Social Security number and immigration violations, admitted he knew another man with Arizona connections accused of flying the jet into the Pentagon. Seif, who was never directly linked to the attacks, was ordered out of the country in April.

Despite Huse's report, Hinkle insisted the mismatch letter strategy is not a new protective measure and declined to comment on the report, saying the agency is looking into its recommendations.

Hinkle also discounted widespread belief by immigrants and employers that the agency is teaming up with the Immigration and Naturalization Service on the letter campaign to root out illegal workers.

Law bans sharing data

He said that federal law prevents the agency from sharing Social Security numbers with the INS. He added that the letters warn employers that they may face legal action if they use the number discrepancy as a basis to fire or intimidate workers.

The two agencies do work together on Operation Tarmac, an ongoing series of roundups of immigrants who used fake or stolen Social Security numbers to get high-security-clearance jobs at airports across the country. Nearly 200,000 employees in 94 airports have been checked out and 547 arrested. On April 18, federal agents arrested 27 workers at Sky Harbor International Airport.

But INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said there is no connection between the airport raids and Social Security's mismatch letters. His agency has its own program to help employers comply with immigration laws, Bergeron said.

Despite the agencies' distinct missions, they are still on the same team when it comes to fighting terrorism, Bergeron said.

But punishing workers by forcing them out of jobs and fining employers for providing jobs will neither increase security nor rid the country of illegal immigrants, employers and immigrant advocates said, arguing that giving workers legal status through a guest worker program would make everybody's life easier.

Not immigration agents

Employers said they're all for obeying the law and prefer to hire legal workers - for many, immigrants compose more than 75 percent of their workforce - but they say that's often a luxury they can't afford.

Besides, they add, it's not their duty to be immigration agents.

"I think the subtle message here is to make sure you don't have any illegals working for you, and most employers around here know it," said Bob Fitzgerald, owner of General Maintenance, a Phoenix cleaning company.

He recently received a mismatch letter, the third in two months. He said about 20 employees left on their own after he discussed the problem with them.

"I want to do what's right, but I don't want to be a policeman," said Kevin Rogers of Rogers Brothers Farm, which has three Valley locations.

"We need some kind of program that allows good, honest, hard-working people to come here and work. I'm willing to sponsor them."

In the past, many employers didn't worry about the letters. One worker said his boss ignored them. In fact, Social Security has no enforcement power. The agency must pass information to the Internal Revenue Service, which then decides which cases to investigate.

Bill Brunson, an IRS spokesman in Phoenix, said companies have to show "willful failure to comply with the IRS code" to be investigated. If they're found to be deliberately reporting wrong document numbers, employers face a $50 fine for each violation, with a maximum penalty of $100,000.

Few firms investigated

Officials did not know how many employers have been investigated and how many have been penalized. But it appears few get to that stage since most employees cited in mismatch letters are long gone by the time an investigator calls.

Immigrant workers don't disappear for long, however. Many try using the same fake document with another employer. Others buy another forged card.

The worker fired from the Phoenix social service agency, a mother of two who attend Phoenix schools and whose $50 fake card worked for seven years, hasn't landed another job. But, she said, others fired along with her had better luck. Many were working a week later.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2002