When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, the federal government’s right hand is in a bare-knuckles fistfight with the federal government’s left hand. And We the People are getting bloodied and bruised in the fight to stop enabling and rewarding illegal immigration.
A new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiative announced last month by the Bush Administration puts teeth into the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) “no-match” letter program by requiring employers to fire any worker who can not produce a valid Social Security number within 90 days, or to risk prosecution.
Every year, the SSA sends out about 100,000 no-match letters to employers who have 10 or more workers with Social Security numbers that do not exist or do not match the names in the agency’s records. No-match letters were routinely ignored, because employers could claim compliance with immigration laws if a suspect employee filled out an I-9 form and presented two forms of ID – the authenticity of which need not be verified.
But before the new program could take effect on September 14th, the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU), the AFL-CIO, several labor groups in CA filed a lawsuit contending that that “DHS is overstepping its authority to enforce immigration laws and is misusing a Social Security Administration database,” reports The Washington Post. U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against the government and scheduled a hearing for Oct. 1.
In response to the ruling, the SSA warns of “a vast bureaucratic logjam” that would significantly delay processing millions of routine retirement and disability claims, if the agency is barred from mailing out some 141,000 already-prepared no-match letters. Judge Chesney’s restraining order applies to these letters because they include a DHS notice advising employers that they risk prosecution if they do not fire employees who cannot show within 90 days that they have valid Social Security numbers. The New York Times reports:
[The] Social Security Administration had already delayed sending the letters to employers for several months this year as officials negotiated with immigration authorities over the new rules and the Senate debated an immigration bill, which failed in June.
Although Judge Chesney did not bar the agency from sending the letters if references to the new rules were removed … it would take 30 days to fix the mailing. … [A]ny delay past mid-September would cause a backlog that would spread into the first half of 2008.
It remains to be seen whether the ACLU and the other plaintiffs can prove their case. According to a report by the Social Security inspector general, 17.8 million of the agency’s 435 million records – that’s fewer than five percent – include a discrepancy that could trigger a no-match letter. A small fraction of these can be attributed to clerical errors or a name change (typically due to marriage or divorce). But the overwhelming majority of the workers flagged are illegal aliens. Thus, the no match letter program very precisely targets the very people it is meant to root out.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Small Business Administration is considering filing an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs. In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal last month, economist Pia Orrenius, a policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, explains why a federal agency would seek to undermine the no-match program:
At least eight million illegal immigrants work in the U.S. today and, perhaps surprisingly, the majority of them work on the books. … According to the SSA’s Earnings Suspense File, taxed wages of persons whose names and Social Security numbers do not match reached $586 billion at the start of fiscal year 2007, up from $463 billion in 2002. This revenue could substantially decrease with the implementation of new laws.
The main effects will be to drive undocumented workers underground where they will work off the books for lower wages, under worse conditions and subject to more abuses. In recent work, Madeline Zavodny of Agnes Scott College and I found that the no-match letters and other post-9/11 enforcement measures, such as the Real ID Act, have eroded the demand for undocumented labor relative to other low-skilled workers, causing the relative wages and employment rates of undocumented workers to decline.
Faced with worse job prospects, some illegal immigrants return to their home countries, but most stay put. They are bound to this country by their U.S.-born children and, in many cases, by their pending green card applications.
As the conditions of illegals worsen, they will be more likely to default on mortgages and credit cards, problems that affect us all. … And as illegals come off the books, their earnings will go untaxed at the same time that their need for public dollars for services such as health care will likely rise, so U.S. taxpayers could be made worse off as well.
Frankly, on the sixth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks The Stiletto has little sympathy for any argument that advocates turning a blind eye to government-issued ID forgery and identity theft.
If the U.S. government had effectively policed its borders, we would not have to deal with de facto amnesty because we lack the manpower and facilities to find, detain and deport the 12 million illegals who are here already. There must be a price to pay for breaking our laws (re-entry into the US after being deported is a felony, not a civil offense – look it up, Rudy), and if that price is to be forced to live “underground” so be it.
If the banking industry had not extended credit and mortgages to illegal aliens (second item), we would not have to deal with defaults and the resulting adverse effects on housing and other sectors of the economy. There must be a price to pay for aiding and abetting lawbreaking. If the banking industry has to eat the resulting losses of loaning money to people it ought not to have been doing business with in the first place, so be it.
If immigrants who cannot prove that they have a green card application pending were ineligible to receive public services, U.S. taxpayer would not have to deal with unskilled, non-English speaking illegal aliens with poor employment prospects living on the dole. There must be a price to pay for taking jobs away from poor, unskilled Americans.
The U.S. can actually learn a thing or two from Mexico on how to handle illegal immigration. Adopt the same illegal immigration laws Mexico has – and enforce them as zealously as Mexico does – and all these problems that Orrenius wrings her hands over are resolved.
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog.
8 users commented in " The Keystone Kops Are Enforcing U.S. Immigration Laws "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI believe both major parties are controlled by the same group of bankers.
A group of bankers and businessmen had been trying to monopolize the banking industry. In 1912 Woodrow Wilson was elected President with the aid of a bribe from them.
They formed the Federal Reserve and are like our personal credit cards are for us except they are the credit card for the government. Well that and they pay no taxes that I know of. Anyway they’re at about at their 100-year anniversary.
They have grown to proportions that I believe they now control many of the politicians of the world. Not only can they buy politicians of both parties here, and control our borders, they can also control much of our spending.
Have you ever wondered why our once great nation has been spending money the way it does. It is sort of like how it would be to have a hundred wives on your credit cards and all of them dating those that own the credit card companies.
They make money when they lend money.
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country.
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.
Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation,
therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world.
No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by
conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by
the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
-Woodrow Wilson
80% of the American people want an end to anarchy!
Illegal workers are criminals, those who hire them are criminals and those who aid-and-abet them are criminals.
Illegal aliens in America have NO rights. We are required by law to arrest and prosecute, deport them.
No, matter your political party affiliation, and setting aside your thoughts on issues. We all need to remember what it is to be an American Citizen. We need to make sure our elected representatives obey their Oath of Office and keep their Oath of Allegiance.
See http://tinyurl.com/2znnvl Know whom you are voting for.
I have no sympathy for illegal aliens, or the bankers that have been catering to them. Finally, something is being done to weed out lawbreakers, even though it’s just a small step. Illegal aliens, and their supporters, knew the day could come, when they could be held responsible for their criminal ways. Build the border fence, crack down on employers that hire illegals, and deport as many as possible. The rest will self deport if their is no ability to find work.
The only ones who still believe in the rule of law it seems, and wants our laws enforced are the American people. Many businesses just want taxpayer subsidized cheap labor. The politicans want the new Latino voting block, and especially the Democrats, will adopt the most racist policies in order to get it.
Bush announces “tough enforcement” in August then immediately pulls off 1/2 of the border guards off the border. He promised after must pushing to build 70 miles of fence this year. Only 13 miles have been built and border patrol has to ask its employees to volunteer to build it!
The use of the no match letters, and the E verify system are not tough enforcement. They only go to the largest companies, and do not catch illegals who are using stolen SSN.
What is going on? If may be this rumored agreement for a North American Union. Judicial Watch is suing to get information. It has a Bush government document that states as Americans will resist North American integration the policies have to be set up in secret, by “evolutinary stealth”.
Check out http://www.stopnorthamericanunion.com
There has been no treatry ratified, but Bush is probably taking the position it is not needed.
The call your repesenatatives and demand that all info about his be made public.
If a citizen or Legal Permanent Resident has a problem with their Social Security account number, it is in the best interest of everyone that it is fixed ASAP. Stop the frivolous lawsuit nonsense and clean up the Social Security data base to insure its future integrity.
The Republican Party is using this issue as a tactic to make US, Americans to forget IRAQ. Stop the racist policy..get those republicans out of Congress and the world would be a much better place. Stop going after innocent people! If you call yourself a religious person…ask yourself one simple question…what would God do with the immigration Issue? Do you think tha he would be as racist and mean spirited as all of you? would he separate kids from their parents? DONT’T THINK SO. WAKE UP AND GET REPUBLICANS OUT OF CONGRESS NOW! SEND THE TROOPS HOME!~
Yes thats right, God want all people of faith to have respect people that use criminal acts,like Social Securty and I.D. fraud! Boy just use our Holy Bible to fit our own foolish view points! Thats just sick!!!!!
Yes thats right, God wants all people of faith to have respect for people that use criminal acts,like Social Securty and I.D. fraud! Boy just use our Holy Bible to fit our own foolish view points! Now Thats just sick!!!!!
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