Mar 29, 2018

Trying To Use Social Security Number Misuse To Criminalize DACA People

     From the Washington Times:
... [P]ublic support for a DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] amnesty appears to be widespread, based in part on the public perception that “Dreamers” have committed no crime other than illegal entry.
In fact, it is likely that many if not most DACA applicants who held regular jobs had committed the crime of perjury, by providing their employers with a stolen or fake Social Security Number (SSN) for tax reporting purposes. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has estimated that 3 out of every 4 illegal aliens possess an SSN that belongs to somebody else.
When U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting DACA applications on Aug. 15, 2012, applicants were required to complete a standard work authorization form that required applicants to “include all [Social Security] numbers [they] have ever used.” In other words, many DACA applicants would have been obliged to confess in writing that they had committed a felony.
However, as soon as this potential disincentive to apply for DACA was brought to the administration’s attention, USCIS rushed out a statement that they were “not interested” in identifying individual violations of “some federal law in an employment relationship,” and they amended their DACA website to limit the reporting of SSNs by DACA applicants to those “officially issued to you by the Social Security Administration.” ...
At the time, DACA supporters might have argued that Social Security fraud by Dreamers, while a crime, did not directly harm any American citizen. What they may not have known, because it was concealed, was that on Aug. 23, 2012, just eight days after DACA commenced, the administration ordered the Social Security Administration (SSA) to suspend its decades-old practice of notifying employees by mail if the name and SSN under which their wages were being reported by their employers did not match the name and SSN in the SSA’s own records.
Many SSN “mismatches” are due to identity fraud, which means that many Dreamers were at risk of receiving mismatch letters from the SSA. Since awareness that they had been “flagged” as identity thieves might well have dissuaded them from disclosing their whereabouts in a DACA application, suspension of the SSA program was a logical add-on to the other actions taken by the administration to prevent fear of identity-theft prosecution from depressing DACA applications. ...
Although the SSA’s mismatch program was suspended on Aug. 23, 2012, the suspension was not made public until more than four years later, on Sept. 16, 2016, as the Obama administration drew to a close. Even then, the fact of the suspension was buried in a footnote to an SSA Records Maintenance notice and, until now, was virtually unknown outside the SSA. Evidently, the Obama administration was not keen to advertise its decision to risk the loss of Social Security benefits for millions of American workers rather than risk dissuading a few hundred thousand Dreamers from applying for DACA. ...
     Social Security number misuse by DACA people isn't a victimless crime. False wage reports can cause significant problems for the legitimate  number holders. However, drawing DACA people out into the open so that they use legitimate Social Security numbers eliminates the misuse. It has to be the most effective way of reducing the problem.
     This piece in a right wing newspaper suggests two possible future courses for the Trump Administration -- prosecuting DACA people for Social Security number misuse committed before DACA or using that misuse as justification for deporting DACA people. Either way it starts drawing Social Security further into immigration enforcement and nobody who cares about Social Security wants that.
     If the DACA people were all from Norway, would this issue be raised? I don't think so.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suspect trump and the majority of his voters hate hispanics in addition to other people of color.

Anonymous said...

You say "If the DACA people were all from Norway, would this issue be raised? I don't think so."

Please list all the countries that are excluded from enforcing the laws and regulations relating to issuing SSNs and maintaining the integrity of the earning records. Can you cite POMs for this listing? How about a court ruling? Can you identify any SSA employee, at any level, who follows or acts or promotes upon such a belief?

Please explain when using a fake SSN is to be tolerated. Please explain when actions are not to be taken when government is notified that a fake SSN is used.

Please explain how SSA will justify failure to take actions relating to these issues when someone affected by this problem becomes aware that they a victim not only of the people using a fake SSN, but also the victim of the government tolerating the use of a fake SSN.


Anonymous said...

@12:40

Do you take issue with the Miranda warning? Just curious how far your argument that our government cannot restrict investigation of private individuals extends. You suggested it restricts enforcement of laws and regulations, but in fact it only restricts investigation.

Anonymous said...

@2:32 it extends to Citizens. All other expectations are a courtesy.

Anonymous said...

As a former State of CA employee, I can attest this IS an issue of identity theft. My mother-in-law and myself had our SSN's used by "non documented non citizens" at different time, with disastrous results. It took her 2 years to untangle hers, costing thousands and many hours & trips to her local office. Mine took over a year despite my friendship with ODAR staff in CA. Neither of us hold ill will to Latinos. If fact, my father built the first permanent housing (20 modular units) and dormitories (2) for migrant workers in his state while heading up a small consortion of orchards. I have known dozens of SSA staffers over the years and none of them would ever cherry pick which POMS or laws to uphold. This is not about Trump. It is simply this: Are we a nation of unenforcable laws or not? And at what cost?

Anonymous said...

@10:00

You are incorrect. The constitution restricts the government from action, regardless of citizenship of the individual involved. Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 US 266 (1973).

What sense would it make for the government to be able to act as they see fit until they find out your are (or are not) a citizen?

Anonymous said...

May this will help 2:32,

Definition of illegal

: not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit; also : not sanctioned by official rules (as of a game)

illegality i-li-ˈga-lə-tē noun


For further clarification, Miranda does not apply in immigration law, nor the Constitution, the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, even illegal immigrants. So an immigrant, legal or illegal, prosecuted under the criminal code has the right to due process, a speedy and public trial, and other rights protected by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Knowledge is power, get you some!!

Anonymous said...

@3:33

That was my point.

1, Immigrants have due process rights (regardless of legality of immigration).
2, Due process restricts the government's ability to enforce laws and regulations (appropriately).
3, 12:40's suggestion that restriction of government action is unreasonable is incorrect.

As to Miranda not applying in the immigration context, I never said it did but your point is accurate. My point was that the government is frequently restricted from certain actions, and Miranda was an obvious example of this.

Anonymous said...

What the Obama administration had in mind was to retroactively legitimize SSA earnings for T2 benefit entitlement purposes. Once DACA immigrants get citizenship, the natural extension will be to assert their previous earnings under multiple SSNs and even aliases were really their own. If they identify the correct sources of the earnings and come clean, thereby permitting the transfer of such prior earnings to them. I kid you not. This was planned by some Obama folks.

Anonymous said...

6:12 Immigrants are protected under the law, they are in process or have completed the process. DACA are NOT IMMIIGRANTS they are illegal undocumented trespassers. Big difference between someone who is going through the process properly and an ILLEGAL Alien that is not following the rule of law. If you want a point here is the point, they have the right to be deported quickly!!!!