Jun 16, 2007

Baltimore Sun On Social Security Role In Immigration Enforcement

Some excerpts from a Baltimore Sun article:
... the linchpin of future of immigration enforcement is stored in a secure facility in Woodlawn [Maryland, where the Social Security Administration's central offices are located], where computer servers hold the digital Social Security records of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Since 1996, a growing number of employers have logged on to a password-protected Web site and queried those records to see whether job applicants are here legally. ...

The now-imperiled Senate immigration proposal would require such a search, starting with new hires and, within three years, the rest of the work force...

[T]he Social Security database contains errors. A recent report from the agency's inspector general found a 4.1 percent error rate. ...

No matter whose fault it is, the error rate is still enough to generate an enormous amount of work for Social Security employees. ...

If the program is to expand, the agency will need more staff and, therefore, more money. ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Note that Social Security Administration records cannot show whether the job applicant is authorized to work in the U.S. A. SSA records can only verify whether the number holder was authorized to work. It is up to the employer to verify that the applicant is the number holder. This is where most errors occur because the applicant presents false ID documents in someone else' name.