No Match Letters To Cause "Massive Disruption Of The Work Force"

From David Hendricks at the San Antonio Express-News:

Letters listing millions of Social Security “no-match” workers are ready to mail to employers.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency personnel are trained and ready. Buses and vans are standing by for raids. Detention facilities have expanded.

All that is lacking is clearance from the courts.

Employers should be prepared in the coming months for immigration raids on scales never before staged by the federal government. ...

Austin lawyers Kevin Lashus and Robert Loughran compare the federal government's preparations for increased worksite enforcement to an army practicing for battle.

“The government expects a massive disruption of the work force,” Loughran said. “A climate of fear is the strategy of this administration.” ...

Lashus, a former ICE official, has been involved in some of the agency's previous workplace raids. Loughran is a longtime specialist in employer sanctions law.

Whereas ICE has routinely conducted about 10 raids a month, the lawyers expect the pace to rise significantly once the Social Security Administration mails the letters. ICE could strike workplaces 20 to 30 at a time in any given city. The agency would pause to process the cases, then begin new rounds of raids, Lashus said.

Homeland Security wanted to implement its plan last fall, but a U.S. district judge blocked Social Security's no-match letters after labor unions and other organizations contended the plan would disrupt companies and harm innocent workers. ...

Homeland Security appealed the judge's decision but in March proposed to go ahead on its plan. Any day now, the Arizona judge must decide whether to lift the injunction or make it permanent.

If the injunction becomes permanent, Social Security will hold the letters while Homeland Security again appeals. If the injunction is lifted, the no-match letters could be mailed within days.

So what happens at Social Security if this "massive disruption of the work force" goes forward? My best guess is massive disruption. Illegal immigrants will not be contacting the Social Security Administration. It will be U.S. citizens whose careers will be jeopardized by errors in databases and the simple failure to notify the Social Security Administration of name changes. These U.S. citizens will be unable to get through on the telephone. They will find impossibly long lines outside the doors of Social Security field offices. If my guess is correct, I think some people may be asking Michael Astrue why he did not give a stark public warning about what was going to happen.