On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reissued a “no match” rule that would continue to put lawful workers, including millions of U.S. citizens, at risk of losing their jobs. The republished rule attempts to justify a fundamentally flawed database without actually fixing any problems. If the newly released DHS rule were to take effect, it would still improperly use Social Security records for immigration enforcement.

The reissued rule fails to substantively change the original rule that was blocked last October when a federal court found that it would cause irreparable harm to both innocent American workers and employers. Instead, it unsuccessfully attempts to explain away the inherent problems caused by relying on the error-ridden Social Security Administration (SSA) database to verify legal authorization to work.

For years, employers have submitted employee information to the SSA so that workers may receive credit for their Social Security contributions. If the submitted employee information does not match the information the SSA has in its databases, the SSA sends employers “no-match” letters informing them of the discrepancies. Before, employers never had any duty to respond to these letters. But according to this rule, if the employer doesn’t take action to resolve the discrepancies, DHS says it can assume that the employer had knowledge that its workers are not legally authorized to work in the U.S.

There are many innocuous reasons that a lawful worker’s Social Security information might not match what the SSA has on file. These include clerical errors, name changes from marriage or divorce, or improper hyphenation or transliteration of foreign names. In light of these many innocent reasons for a discrepancy, the receipt of a “no-match” letter does not amount to knowledge of questionable work status.

Indeed, the Social Security Administration’s own Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has concluded that there are 17.8 million inconsistencies in its records relating to lawful American workers. The OIG also reports that 70 percent of those inconsistencies, relating to about 12.7 million individuals, belong to native-born U.S. citizens. Yet DHS seeks to turn these notoriously inaccurate SSA records into the litmus test for whether a worker is authorized to work.

Lawfully authorized workers will need to take time off from work and make multiple visits to the SSA. It can take ages to obtain, certify, and in some cases translate the documents needed and could involve going back and forth with foreign governments to get marriage certificates or birth certificates from far-flung places. Both workers and their employers suffer during this limbo period. Of even greater concern is that employers are more likely to discriminate against immigrant workers or anyone with a foreign-sounding name just to avoid this potential disruption.

Rather than penalizing American workers for typographical errors in the SSA’s own database, the Administration should work to enforce existing laws protecting all workers against discrimination and exploitation. Enforcing protections for all workers will reduce the incentives for unscrupulous employers to evade the immigration laws.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Politics .