Tell DHS: "No-Match" Letters Hurt All Workers

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to start using the Social Security database as a tool for identifying illegal immigrants.

The problem is that the rule will hurt workers and employers who play by the rules -- the Social Security database is full of errors, and more than 70% of them are in records belonging to legal, native-born American workers!

Tell DHS that the Social Security database is not an appropriate tool for enforcing the immigration laws.

Tell me more

Subject:

Dear Ms. Hernandez,

(Edit Letter Below)

I am a U.S. worker and I am writing to oppose the "revised" rule (Safe Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter) on using Social Security "No-Match" letters for immigration enforcement purposes, because it will hurt workers and the economy as a whole.

"No-match" letters were developed to ensure that workers receive proper credit of their earnings from Social Security (SSA). SSA's records contain many errors, e.g., due to name changes or clerical errors, that have nothing to do with immigration status. Requiring employers to fire workers for whom they have received a letter -- or face significant penalties -- is a use for which the SSA database was neither intended nor is well-suited. According to the Inspector General, over 70% of the millions of errors that could result in a no-match letter are errors in the records of native-born citizens.

Not only will this no-match rule hurt millions of legal workers due to errors, it will hinder enforcement of workers' legal rights. Unscrupulous employers who receive a no-match letter for one of their workers can simply ignore it, and then use it later as a excuse to fire that worker if she or he complains about being cheated out of overtime pay or tries to organize a union. Or, the employer may just start paying its workers cash under the table so that it doesn't have to file anything with Social Security. Either way, pushing undocumented workers further underground allows employers to drive down the wages and working conditions of all workers, including citizens and legal immigrants.

Immigration policies should strengthen, not undermine, the ability of workers to assert their rights in the workplace. This "revised" rule is the same as the original rule, which a federal court already found to be flawed and stopped from being implemented. This one should not be implemented either.

Sincerely,
Howard Hall
[Your address]

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