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January 21, 2010
Exclusive: Unbelievable: Social Security Doesn’t Use E-Verify on its Own Employees
Time and again, it would appear that those who are provided with leadership positions believe that they themselves are above the laws that they administer and promulgate. You could sum this wacky philosophy up with the phrase, "Do as I say, not as I do!"
Which brings us to this Washington Times article describing how Social Security rarely uses E-Verify to check on its own employees.
The idea that the government agency that shares responsibility for running the E-Verify program does not use E-Verify to determine the eligibility of its own employees to be gainfully employed in the United States leaves me nearly speechless.
There are a number of reasons why the use of E-Verify is so important:
First and foremost, the purpose of E-Verify is to assist employers in determining that a newly hired employee is, in fact, legally authorized to work in the United States. The use of E-Verify can also help to weed out those who use stolen Social Security numbers. This only prevents illegal aliens from taking jobs in the United States but can have the additional benefit of identifying those who may have devised false identities in an effort to conceal their true identities – possibly because they have criminal histories they are trying to conceal or for other nefarious reasons.
Consider the issue of the Employer Sanctions program, under which those who are alleged to have intentionally hired illegal aliens. Sanctions for violation can ran range from fines to criminal prosecution. If you read the M-274 Employers Handbook issued by the Department of Homeland Security's USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), you can see how the burden of the employer sanctions laws rest on the shoulders of employers – who are not identity document experts. Furthermore, the handbook and the actual Form I-9, which all new employees are required to fill out and are signed off on by their employers, warns the employer of the potential for violating civil rights laws if the employer should even ask to see any additional documents not enumerated in the M-274 Employers Handbook or the I-9.
Take a moment to consider what this means.
According Title 8, Section 1304(e) of the United States Code, which is part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) every alien present in the United States is required to carry proof of "Alien Registration." For a resident alien, this proof is provided by the Alien Registration Card (the so-called "green card"). According to the Form I-9 and the M-274, an alien who provides his new employer with his green card need not provide any other documentation in order to be qualified to work, provided that the employer is reasonably convinced that the card is authentic and relates to the employee. However, according to the law, a new employee can simply provide a driver's license and Social Security card and tell the employer what his Alien Registration File Number is. If the employer is concerned about the potential for hiring an illegal alien and asks the new employee to bring in his green card in the next day or two, just to make sure all is okay – that simple request would represent a violation of his new employees rights.
This is the case even if the employee furnished his new boss with a driver's license from the other side of the country. Put yourself in the place of a well-intentioned employer: You just hired someone who appears to be ideal for the job you need done. Let's make believe you have your factory in New York City and the new employee provides you with a driver's license from Alaska and his Social Security card. He tells you what his Alien Number is, but does not show you his green card. You have never seen a license from Alaska before and out of an abundance of caution, and so you ask to see some additional documentation.
If your new employee wants to play hardball, he can hire an attorney and sue you for a civil rights violation. If he complains to the Office of the Special Counsel of the United States Department of Justice, that agency may also opt to punish you.
Yet, if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) conducts an I-9 audit of your company and determines you have hired illegal aliens who furnished you with counterfeit green cards or counterfeit documents, you may be fined or even criminally prosecuted. Meanwhile, the E-Verify program, which is designed to help make it less likely that a new employee is not really authorized to work in the United States, is optional and there have been members of Congress who have voted to kill this program.
The time is long overdue for E-Verify to be made mandatory for all employers.
There are a number of members of the United States Congress who have voted against the E-Verify program, a program that represents a significant step in the right direction to help prevent illegal aliens from securing illegal employment in the United States – and now we discover that a federal agency is failing to use this important program as a matter of routine.
With identity theft often being described as being the fast growing "white collar" crime in the United States, you would think that the Social Security Administration, which plays an integral role in creating new identities for people when Social Security Numbers are issued – or in assisting those who seek to steal someone else's identity by learning what Social Security Number relates to what name and date of birth – would be extremely cautious about the employees that they hire. The use of E-Verify by the Social Security Administration would assist in enhancing the integrity of the agency by helping to screen their new hires to help make certain that the people who they hire are who they claim to be.
The creation of false identities represents a threat to the safety and security of our citizens and a threat to national security. The creation of false identities serves as the means by which criminals and terrorists manage to embed themselves or "hide in plain sight."
While the businesses that seek excuses for not using E-Verify often complain about accuracy issues, the reality is that the system is extremely accurate. When, on those extremely rare instances an error is made, there is a simple way for employers and employees to resolve these issues quickly.
By the way, you may not know this, but if an employer receives information that one or more of his employees is actually an illegal alien, that employer may not use E-Verify to check on that previously hired employee. They can go to the Social Security Administration and ask them to make certain that the Social Security Numbers for all of that company's employees match, but they cannot ask to only have the numbers relating to the questionable employees checked.
The advice I would provide to the "leaders" of the Social Security Administration is the same advice I would give to our nation's "leaders" in Congress and within the administration: Lead by example.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (1)
Hard to believe that we have "let" it come to this. The ironic thing about situations like this is that the nitwits in charge are worried about appearing racist by enforcing laws on latinos that APPLY TO EVERYBODY EQUALLY. How is it a violation of some one's civil rights to ask them to document their eligibility for employment in their adopted country. This is exactly the kind of thing that promulgates MORE racism not less. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HAS SKEWERED THIS ONCE GREAT NATION!!!
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