From National Public Radio:
The Social Security Administration may be the latest front in the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
The agency is reviving the controversial practice of sending "no match" letters to businesses across the country, notifying them when an employee's Social Security number doesn't match up with official records.
That may sound innocuous. But these no-match letters are expected to set off alarm bells. That's what happened when they arrived in the mail back in the mid-2000s. ...
There are a lot of reasons someone's Social Security number might not match: name changes or clerical errors, for example. But it can also mean that a worker is using a fake Social Security number. And when an employer gets one of these letters, it has to ask the worker to fix the problem.
Labor unions and immigrant advocates took the issue to court in the mid-2000s. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce complained that the government was trying to turn businesses into "immigration cops." Eventually, the Obama administration stopped sending these letters in 2012. ...
5 comments:
SSA gets millions of dollars that we know are wrong because the person is dead, etc. We do not send the $ to the individual states unclaimed property - SSA uses it to pay benefits and reps. attorneys fees!
My son gets SSI and is incapable of working. For a few years in the early part of this decade, we kept getting called in for S5 alerts, wages being reported. We'd point out how the farm work in California was both geographically and physically impossible and eventually get it "fixed" only to start all over again. Using the S5 data, I did internet searches for the employer and found local news articles about deplorable housing for migrant workers and shady business practices and Immigration issues. I reached out to the reporter and explained that a worker employed by them was using my son's SSN and causing us issues. He gave me the phone number of the bookkeeper of the company! I called and explained the problem and said that I am retired so I have time to fix this the hard way - write letters to Immigration, local police for ID theft, etc. Or they could fix it the easy way at their end and make sure no one ever uses that SSN again and that any wages reported get "fixed" from his account. She agreed to look into it and do what she could. Never had another S5 alert and his earnings record is now clear of the bogus work. Clearly, the folks at that business knew exactly what was going on. There are consequences when SSNs that belong to others are used fraudulently.
If someone was using my SS number to work, while I am on SSDI I would want it stopped before I loose benefits.Asking for confirmation on suspicious activity is NOT a bad thing.
The no match thing which happened back in the mid 2000's was also hard on the transgender community. Employer's were getting a "no match" on gender marker and outing transgender people who didn't care to disclose their personal medical history with their employer, leading to discrimination and often employment termination. It was horrific. Thankfully Obama when in office changed policy to allow transgender people to change gender marker with Social Security if they have started treatment, not requiring the genital reassignment surgery first to change the marker. I wouldn't be surprised if the Trump administration had Social Security revert back to its old policy with respect to changing marker -- gender reassignment surgery -- or worse case not allowing it at all; (read about the leaked Department of Health and Human Services leaked memo about them suggesting that gender is immutable.)
GOOD!! Trump is an idiot, but if he keeps this up, I will definitely vote for him this time. Obama should have never stopped this practice.
Post a Comment