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. 

No Punishment For Aiding And Abetting Illegal Aliens

     From an audit report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (footnotes omitted, emphasis added):

Because the Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates future benefit payments based on the earnings an individual has accumulated over his/her lifetime, it is critical that the Agency accurately record those earnings. SSA’s ability to do so, however, depends, in part, on employers and employees correctly reporting names and Social Security numbers (SSN) on Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. SSA uses automated edits to match employees’ names and SSNs with Agency records to ensure it properly credits earnings to the Master Earnings File. SSA places wage items that fail to match name and SSN records in its Earnings Suspense File (ESF). ...

[W]e obtained ESF data for TYs [Tax Years] 2007 through 2009. These data represented the most complete tax data available at the start of our audit, given the inherent lag in posting annual wage information. We then identified the 100 employers who contributed the most wage items to the ESF for the 3-year period. We also identified the 100 employers (with a minimum of 100 employees)who had the highest percentage of suspended wage items for TYs 2007 through 2009. For the 200 employers selected, we analyzed ESF data to identify reporting irregularities, such as SSNs that SSA either had never issued or assigned to another individual. We also contacted Employer Service Liaison Officers (ESLO) to obtain information on their experiences with employers who provided names and/or SSNs that did not match SSA’s records. ...

For TYs 2007 through 2009, the 100 employers who had the most suspended wage items had submitted over 2.3 million wage items for which the employees’ names and/or SSNs did not match SSA’s records. These wage items represented $15.7 billion in suspended earnings over the 3-year period. In total, 18 percent of the wage items these employers submitted did not match names/SSNs in SSA’s files. ...

In previous reports, SSA acknowledged unauthorized noncitizens’ intentional misuse of SSNs has been a major contributor to the ESF’s growth. SSA staff told us employers hired unauthorized workers because nothing prevented them from doing so. That is, employers know SSA had no legal authority to levy fines and penalties, and they were not concerned about potential IRS sanctions. Several of the employers and industry associations we contacted acknowledged that unauthorized noncitizens contributed to SSN misuse. For example, one employer told us his and many restaurants would close if they did not hire unauthorized noncitizens. A temporary labor service employer acknowledged that some of his former employees were unauthorized noncitizens who used invalid, unassigned, and deceased individuals’ SSNs. Furthermore, the president of a large growers’ association stated that farm labor contractors employed a large number of unauthorized noncitizens.

     The offending employers are not named in the audit report.

No Match Letters Going Out Again

The Immigration Employment Blog reports that Social Security has resumed sending out "no match" letters to employers after a long hiatus. The no match letters are sent out when an employer reports earnings with a name and Social Security number that do not match.

Illegal Aliens Help Social Security

From the Cox newspaper chain:

While many Americans believe illegal immigrants don't pay taxes, billions of dollars deducted from paychecks issued to undocumented workers flow to the Social Security Administration (SSA) every year. Those workers almost certainly will never see that money again.

Social Security officials keep a record of wages that do not match up with real names and numbers in their system. The record is called the earnings suspense file.
In 2009, the last year for which figures are available, employers reported wages of $72.8 billion for 7.7 million workers who could not be matched to legal Social Security numbers.

Because those wages were reported by employers and not paid under the table, Social Security and Medicare deductions had to be made. A total of 12.4 percent of those wages went into the SSA system — 6.2 percent paid each by the worker and the employer. An additional 2.9 percent was paid into Medicare, half by the worker and half by the employer.

That means about $11.2 billion went into the Social Security Trust Fund in 2007, and $2.6 billion went into Medicare. While that money will be used to pay retirees and health-care beneficiaries, it most likely will never be claimed by the illegal immigrants who contributed it.

Illegal Immigrants And Social Security

From Edward Schumacher-Matos writing on the Op Ed page of the Washington Post:

The contributions by unauthorized immigrants to Social Security -- essentially, to the retirement income of everyday Americans -- are much larger than previously known, raising questions about the efforts in many states and among Republicans in Congress to force these workers out.

In response to a research inquiry for a book I am writing on the economics of immigration, Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support for his straightforwardness, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between $120 billion and $240 billion from unauthorized immigrants.

That represented an astounding 5.4 percent to 10.7 percent of the trust fund's total assets of $2.24 trillion that year. The cumulative contribution is surely higher now. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of $12 billion in 2007 alone, Goss said....

"If for example we had not had other-than-legal immigrants in the country over the past," Goss e-mailed me, "then these numbers suggest that we would have entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover [payouts] starting [in] 2009, or six years earlier than estimated under the 2010 Trustees Report."

Looks like it is the illegal immigrants who are supporting us Americans. Should we be so eager to deport them?

E-Verify Required For Federal Contractors

Federal contractors and subcontractors are required beginning today to use Social Security's E-Verify system to confirm a match between their employees names and Social Security numbers.

No Match Rule Being Rescinded

From the Washington Post:

President Obama will abandon a controversial immigration crackdown, sought by his predecessor, to pressure U.S. companies to fire 9 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday.

Instead, Obama will mandate that federal contractors confirm the identities of 4 million workers against federal databases beginning in September ...

E-Verify Delayed

From the Adjunct Law Prof Blog:

E-Verify is an Internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. E-Verify is free and voluntary.

However, federal contractors will shortly be required to use this system. The effective date, however has been pushed back until September 8, 2009.