Immigration Brutality At Social Security

      From Fox 4:

59-year-old Ramona Rakestraw said she has relied on Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, as her sole source of income while battling kidney disease and cancer. She tells FOX 4 that her payments stopped in October after she was told her immigration status was under review.

Rakestraw said she was born in 1966 at Parkland Hospital in Dallas [where JFK was taken after being shot] and has never lived outside Dallas County nor has she traveled outside the United States.

Kidney disease first sent Rakestraw to dialysis at age 28. 

She later received a transplant, but about 30 years later she returned to dialysis and received a cancer diagnosis in 2024.  …

Rakestraw said she took her identification and birth certificate to her local Social Security office in an effort to resolve the issue.

"That’s my income, my whole income," she said. …

Rakestraw said she has filed an appeal and completed the required paperwork. …

     And now the problem has been solved. It only took the involvement of a TV station. 

An Analysis Of The New Plan To Use SSA To Trap Inmigrants

       We face the prospect of noncitizens showing up for appointments at Social Security being arrested by ICE on their way into or out of the office because the agency has tipped off ICE. AltSSA, an anonymous Blue Sky account, has analyzed some of the legal aspects of what’s going to happen.

1/21 OK we are gonna start with this story. This is gonna be long and a little nuanced so stick with me. There will be a lot in here that will address SSA employees directly so if you know an SSA employee, please share with them! And if you see any errors or gaps in my knowledge, please let me know!

https://www.wired.com/story/social-security-administration-appointment-details-ice/

2/21 First it’s important to point out that allowing this type of data sharing is not technically new. It has been rare, specific, and approved individually. Also reminder here that if an immigrant has an SSN, they were documented and legal at the time the SSN was issued. We verify it with DHS.

3/21 A lot of appts are by phone, but certain appts require we verify ID and/or legal status at the appt, so these are done in person. This includes applying for an SSN for the first time, or a replacement card if not a citizen, or applying for benefits if you are an immigrant who can (ie refugees).

4/21 Side note that requiring immigrants already on benefits (mostly refugees who are disabled or elderly) to reverify legal status in person when doing their periodic redetermination, even if we know the document they have has an expiration date in the future, is a new policy and not coincidental.

5/21 This is likely because the regime is doing things like terminating Temporary Protected Status for countries like Haiti, which is, by definition, creating undocumented immigrants who were documented and legal until they changed that. Because they are garbage meat sacks masquerading as humans. 🤬🤬

6/21 Anyway. Let’s talk about current policy around sharing data with law enforcement/DHS. Like many of our policies, you can view this online (see link). This policy was last updated 4/2025 so by this regime. It details that such requests are supposed to be in writing and meet specific criteria.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0203313095

7/21 The specific criteria can be found here (secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms....) and here (secure https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0203312080) and they are very specific. Each request is supposed to be approved individually by the Office of Privacy and Disclosure within the Office of the General Counsel at SSA.

8/21 Now they do mention one other policy that allows for ad hoc requests by LEOs (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0203312090....) which was updated in December 2025, but even that requires approval by the OPD and does not state an SSA employee can just give info to an ICE agent. It says the opposite actually.

9/21 So why did I do a policy deep dive? So it is crystal clear to everyone that this communication is being given verbally to specific offices only because they know this goes against our own policies and is almost certainly illegal on some level. This is not something we are allowed to do. Period. …

ICE Will Be Given SSA Appointment Info

       From Wired:

Workers at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have been told to share information about in-person appointments with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), WIRED has learned.

“If ICE comes in and asks if someone has an upcoming appointment, we will let them know the date and time,” an employee with direct knowledge of the directive says. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. …

Noncitizens are also required to appear in-person to review continued eligibility of benefits. …

     ICE arresting people outside Social Security offices with help from Social Security is highly disturbing. 

I Don’t Like The Sound Of This

      From  new entry in Social Security’s operating manual, POMS:

We created a new POMS section titled, "Addressing Anomalous Electronic Annual Wage Reporting Activity" in response to an increase in irregularities observed in electronic wage reporting. …

SSA may delay processing or decline to process anomalous wage reports. When anomalies are detected that, in SSA's judgement, warrant investigation, SSA will suspend processing some or all electronic reports from the submitter and contact the submitter to initiate an investigation. …

SSA may also refer a matter to OIG for possible investigation. Technicians should report suspected cases of fraud to OIG via Allegation Referral Intake System (ARIS). …

     This may be nothing but it looks to me like the start of a new immigration enforcement mechanism, trying to find employers of immigrants and harassing them. That’s better than what ICE is doing in Minneapolis but it still involves Social Security in immigration enforcement which is not its mission.  

     By the way, as someone steeped in administrative law, I’m noticing a complete lack of due process, which is the sort of thing that could quickly shut this down.  You just can’t harass employers and their employees like this badly without giving them an opportunity to be heard by a neutral adjudicator.

You Can Almost Feel Sorry For Lee Dudek

     Here are some interesting messages from the Secretary of Homeland Security to then Acting Commissioner of Social Security Leland Dudek back in April. Note the stern, commanding tone of the messages. Note also the complete lack of legal underpinning for what is being demanded. These were posted by Social Security itself. By the way, Dudek, who apparently has a Twitter account, liked and retweeted my tweet about this. As always, click on the images below to view full size.

 

Social Security Reinstating Immigrants Falsely Declared Dead

      From the Washington Post:

Immigrants falsely labeled dead by the Social Security Administration are showing up at field offices with documents proving they are alive, leading staff to reinstate nearly three dozen people over the past week, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.
The immigrants who have requested a reversal and been reinstated in Social Security databases include a Haitian asylum seeker and a minor child, the records show. Some immigrants have shown up with driver’s licenses and work permits to prove their legitimacy, the records show. Others have arrived bearing letters of notification that they received from their states declaring them dead. …

Records obtained by The Post show the immigrants listed as dead include a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old, two 16-year-olds and four 17-year-olds, as well as people in their 70s and one 83-year-old. Agency staff later checked some of the youngest individuals against data the agency uses to research criminal history and could find no evidence of crimes or law enforcement interactions, The Post reported. The records show 6,161 people were added to the file in early April at the request of DHS, along with an additional 102 a few days later. As of Friday, Social Security staff had restored 31 of these people to the rolls, declaring them living again, the records show. ..

     I wonder if DOGE or the White House knew about these reinstatements.

Waste Of Scarce Resources

      From  “Fact Sheet” issued by the White House yesterday:

Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits.

• The Memorandum directs the administration to ensure ineligible aliens are not receiving funds from Social Security Act programs.
  • This includes promulgating guidance and prioritizing enforcement actions against grantees or subgrantees that do not: verify eligibility, stop payments to deceased or ineligible payees, or otherwise prevent ineligible aliens from receiving funds.
• It expands the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. Attorney Offices and establishes a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. Attorney Offices.
• The Memorandum requires the SSA Inspector General to investigate earnings reports for individuals aged 100 or older with mismatched SSA records, to combat identity theft.
• It also directs the SSA to consider whether to reinstate the use of civil monetary penalties against individuals who engage in Social Security fraud, an effort that has been paused for several years.

PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS: President Trump believes that taxpayer-funded benefits should be provided only to eligible persons and must not encourage or reward illegal immigration to the United States.

• Policing Social Security Act fraud is critical because the Act contains not only traditional Social Security provided to older Americans, but also unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, and other programs.
• The surge in illegal immigration caused by the previous Administration is siphoning dollars and essential services from American citizens while state and local budgets grow increasingly strained.
  • Biden oversaw a sharp increase in the number of immigrants given Social Security Numbers (SSNs), with more than 2 million illegal aliens assigned SSNs in fiscal year 2024 alone.
• The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) calculated that American taxpayers spend at least $182 billion annually to cover the costs incurred by the presence of 20 million illegal aliens and their children, which includes $66.4 billion in Federal expenses plus an additional $115.6 billion in state and local expenses.
  • FAIR estimated that nearly a million illegal aliens hold stolen identifications or fraudulent SSNs.
  • Although some illegal aliens do pay taxes, those tax contributions come nowhere near covering the costs they impose on the populace; FAIR estimates illegal aliens are still a $150.7 billion net fiscal burden.
• The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Biden Administration’s open borders agenda, which sought to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services to illegal aliens, has cost Federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion. Joe Biden also tried to make illegal aliens eligible for Obamacare until he was stopped in a lawsuit. 

Social Security Halts No-Match Letters

     A press release:

Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement regarding Social Security Administration (SSA)’s decision to halt sending “no-match” letters, also known as Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) notices:

“We welcome SSA’s announcement that it will stop the harmful practice of sending no-match letters to employers with certain discrepancies in their W-2 records. Two years ago, we strongly condemned SSA’s decision to send these letters out in the first place because they disproportionately imperil immigrants and threaten workers’ privacy. No-match letters have been shown to be wholly ineffective in correcting wage records and are not a cost-effective use of SSA’s limited resources. Today, we reiterate that the agency is prohibited by law from using its funds for any purpose other than administering Social Security, such as immigration enforcement. While we are glad to see SSA finally do the right thing and stop sending these letters, it is unfortunate that SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul chose to send these harmful letters for two years, inflicting significant harm on many affected workers.”

In June 2019, Chairmen Neal and Larson, along with former Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, the late John Lewis (D-GA), sent a letter to Commissioner Saul opposing SSA’s decision to restart sending no-match letters. Specifically, the members cited their concerns that the letters may lead to the firing of U.S. citizens and work-authorized immigrants, that they may result in the unauthorized sharing of tax data, and that they were a poor use of SSA’s scarce resources. 

      You will notice the contrast drawn, implicitly, to the pious statements from Social Security that they were forbidden to help the IRS with stimulus checks until the IRS ponied up money for the costs of producing the lists of those eligible because the funds appropriated for Social Security could only be used for administering Social Security and not helping with stimulus payments. However, when the Trump Administration asked for Social Security's help with immigration enforcement, Social Security apparently saw no such obstacle.

     It's past time for the House Ways and Means Committee, the whole Committee, to hold an oversight hearing and force Andrew Saul to answer questions under oath.

Congressional Opposition To No-Match Letters

     From a press release:

Today, Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT), and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman John Lewis (D-GA) sent a letter to Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Andrew M. Saul stating their opposition to SSA’s resumption of sending “no-match” letters. Specifically, the members cite their concerns that the letters may lead to the firing of U.S. citizens and work-authorized immigrants, that they may result in the unauthorized sharing of tax data, and that they are a poor use of SSA’s scarce resources. 

SSA started sending these no-match letters (also known as Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) and Employer Correction Request letters) earlier this year to employers who have a W-2 employee name or Social Security number that does not match SSA’s records. This discrepancy may occur for a variety of reasons, including typographical errors, misspellings of complex names, name changes due to marriage or divorce, or with respect to undocumented workers. 

SSA had not sent these letters for years because they have been shown to be wholly ineffective in correcting wage records and not a cost-effective use of the agency’s limited resources. Moreover, SSA is prohibited by law from using its funds for any purpose other than administering Social Security, such as immigration enforcement. ...

Resumption Of No Match Letters

     From the New York Times:

The Trump administration is notifying tens of thousands of employers that the names of some of their employees do not match their Social Security numbers, a move that is forcing businesses across the country to brace for the loss of thousands of workers who lack legal status.

The Social Security Administration has mailed “no-match letters” to more than 570,000 employers since March, sending shock waves through the hospitality, construction and agriculture industries, which rely heavily on undocumented workers. The letters have left many employers conflicted, uncertain whether to take action that could result in losing workers or to risk fines down the road. ...

“There is a high level of anxiety over these no-match letters,’’ said Angelo Amador, regulatory counsel at the National Restaurant Association, which represents about one million food-service establishments. He said the association has been barraged with emails and phone calls from concerned companies. ...

The government officially suspended the use of no-match letters in 2012, although the practice had actually been discontinued years earlier, after the government faced litigation. The resumption appears to be a response to the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order signed by President Trump to protect American workers and reduce illegal immigration. ...

Mark Hinkle, the Social Security Administration’s acting press secretary, did not respond to a question about whether the administration was sharing its data with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. ...

No Match Letter Worries

     Fruit growers are starting to worry about "no match" letters from Social Security telling them that an employee's name and Social Security number don't match.

Return Of No Match Letters

     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. ...

Going After The Undocumented In Another Way

     From the Pacific Standard:

The Social Security Administration is planning to pore through wage and tax statements and notify employers when employee names and Social Security numbers are not identified in their records in what appears to be the Trump administration's latest push to target undocumented Americans in the workplace.  

The SSA announced in a recent post on its website that, in the spring of 2019, it would begin to send Employer Correction Request Notices to employers of people whose names and Social Security numbers do not match those in its system. ... 

Previous administrations have sent out such letters before, but were "temporarily halted during litigation and congressional inquiry because it was wrongfully used as a method of immigration enforcement that was found to hurt workers and employers alike, regardless of immigration status," says Sasha Feldstein, policy analyst at the California Immigrant Policy Center. 

"The resurgence of this policy after it was found to be wrongfully used and ineffective is just another example of the administration's attempt to exploit workers." ...

Anybody Want To Guess What Happened Here?

     From the Des Moines Register:

One need only glance at Marla Del Carmen’s small, gnarled hands to begin to understand how rheumatoid arthritis has crippled her since 19.  

 The 62-year-old works some, but she relies heavily on Social Security disability to get by.  

 Or, she did.  

 This month, Del Carmen received an odd letter from the Social Security Administration informing her that her disability benefit would increase to $687 a month. But then the letter said those payments were being suspended because “you were not a United States citizen or lawfully present in the U.S.” 

That was news to Del Carmen. She was born in Des Moines with a Hebrew maiden name and has spent all her life on the east side. 

 

 She is married to a Hispanic man, Mateo Del Carmen Hernandez, a permanent resident of the United States, for more than 22 years.  ... 

 With immigration the chief focus of President Donald Trump’s administration, Del Carmen says she can’t help but feel targeted by the federal government. She said it appeared she was disqualified from federal benefits solely because of her married name.  

“I’ve never been to another country. I don’t even have a passport,” she said. “I have to take chemo for my arthritis and I have COPD, so I can’t travel.” Del Carmen said she checked with the Des Moines Social Security office, and no one had applied fraudulently for her benefits. ...

OIG Report On Social Security's Nonwork Alien File

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:    

The Social Security Administration (SSA ) issues nonwork SSNs to noncitizens who lack Department of Homeland Security (DHS) work authorization but have valid nonwork reasons for the SSNs [Social Security Numbers], such as to obtain a federally funded benefit that requires an SSN.

Section 414 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 requires that SSA provide DHS an electronic file, known as the Nonwork Alien File (NWALIEN ) that includes the SSNs, names, and addresses of noncitizens working with nonwork SSNs; the employer reporting the wages; and the earnings amount. Additionally, each year SSA is required to send a report to the Congress on the aggregate quantity of nonwork SSNs used to earn wages.

For Tax Years (TY) 2014 to 2016, SSA’s NWALIEN File included about 422,000 individuals who were assigned nonwork SSNs but earn ed about $50 billion in wages

In TY 1996, there were about 607,000 individuals working under nonwork SSNs. In TY 2016, that number decreased about 43 percent to 343,000 individuals. Further, about 80 percent of the employers in the NWALIEN files for TYs 2014 to 2016 may not have been aware their employees were not authorized to work because they had not registered to use E-Verify to confirm their employees’ employment eligibility. Moreover, since 2007, SSA was unable to provide the NWALIEN file to DHS because the data exchange agreement had expired and had not been renewed in 12 years.

Finally, based on our review of SSA’s records for two sample populations of individuals assigned nonwork SSNs with wages posted to the NWALIEN File for TYs 2014 to 2016, we estimate SSA

• erroneously placed 6,000 individuals on the NWALIEN file because staff did not update their work authorization status on the Numident when they provided the Agency with supporting evidence during the benefit claims process, and

• incorrectly assigned nonwork SSNs to 2,700 individuals who were U.S.-born citizens. ...

     This shows problems at Social Security but the bigger problem is employers not verifying authorization to work. If you're serious about reducing illegal immigration, you get serious about putting the burden on employers. Republicans want to build walls and punish immigrants but the more effective course, as well as the cheaper and more humane course, would be to concentrate on the employer side but Republicans don't want to restrict the supply of cheap labor or put additional burdens on employers. By the way, it may have sounded stupid when Mitt Romney talked about illegal immigrants self-deporting but he had a point. Make it nearly impossible for them to work in the U.S. and they go home.

Great New Idea!

     A law professor has a great new idea. Why don't we pay for Trump's wall on the Mexican border by taking money out of the Social Security Trust Funds? It's only fair. Many undocumented migrants from Mexico have paid into those Trust Funds but will never draw benefits because they worked under phony Social Security numbers. Who could object to taking that money out of the Trust Funds to pay for the wall?

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.

More Immigration Enforcement Problems

     Social Security is denying retirement benefits to a man who was born in Canada even though he served in the U.S. Army and his father is a U.S. citizen. The man worked in the U.S. for 48 years. 

     Sounds like where Ted Cruz may be in a few years -- although Cruz never served in the Army.

Is There Much Of This?

     From some television station in Colorado that doesn't put its real name on its website:

Fifty-seven-year-old Galdino Juarez depends on his Social Security benefits. He's been in a wheelchair for a decade.

According to two letters he's received from the Social Security Administration, the agency says it will stop paying Juarez because the Department of Homeland Security informed them Juarez has been deported.

However, DHS confirmed to 9NEWS that Juarez is a lawful permanent resident. He has been a legal resident and a green card holder for 35 years.

I Agree With Cato On This One

     From a press release issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) division of the Department of Homeland Security:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas today announced an enhancement to the E-Verify program that will help combat identity fraud by identifying and deterring fraudulent use of Social Security numbers (SSNs) for employment eligibility verification.

This enhancement provides a critical safeguard to the E-Verify system by detecting and preventing potential fraudulent use of SSNs to gain work authorization. An employer, for example, may enter information into E-Verify that appears valid – such as a matching name, date of birth, and SSN – but was in fact stolen, borrowed or purchased from another individual. This new safeguard now enables USCIS to lock a SSN that appears to have been misused, protecting it from further potential misuse in E-Verify. ...

USCIS will use a combination of algorithms, detection reports and analysis to identify patterns of fraudulent SSN use and then lock the number in E-Verify. This will help deter and prevent fraudulent use of SSNs in the E-Verify system.

If an employee attempts to use a locked SSN, E-Verify will generate a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” (TNC). The employee receiving the TNC will have the opportunity to contest the finding at a local Social Security Administration (SSA) field office. If an SSA field officer confirms the employee’s identity correctly matches the SSN, the TNC will be converted to “Employment Authorized” status in E-Verify. Employees who successfully confirm their identities are encouraged to call USCIS so they can learn more about available resources on identity theft and fraud prevention.

    Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute is concerned about this process:

The largest and most obvious problem is the Kafkaesque bureaucratic resolution process that could catch employees in an endless loop of lockdowns. To begin with, the onus for establishing a valid ID is placed on the user of the number as opposed to USCIS having to prove that the user is fraudulent. Mere identification by a USCIS algorithm shouldn’t prevent somebody from lawfully working.

Legitimate holders of Social Security numbers that are locked down are forced to go through the standard and long TNC resolution process to unlock their numbers, which in turn involves the use of state and federal issued documents to prove the applicant’s validity.

But these documents are dependent on Social Security numbers.  Driver’s licenses in most states, passports, and most of the other forms of government issued ID use Social Security numbers to establish the bearer’s validity. In essence, the holder of a suspect Social Security number is forced to use documentation derived from a number considered suspect by USCIS in order to prove identification to USCIS.  The government has not stated how it will resolve this conundrum or even if it has considered it.