Post by jgaffney on Oct 6, 2010 17:35:20 GMT -5
It seems the more one looks into this, the more one realizes that the whole thing was constructed out of smoke.
I found this while searching for "No Match Letter.' This is from Migration Informatin Source:
September 17, 2007
A federal judge in California temporarily halted the Social Security Administration (SSA) from mailing approximately 140,000 "no-match" letters referencing 8 million workers as part of strengthened immigration enforcement measures the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in August.
According to the DHS regulations, which were to have been implemented as of September 14, employers would have approximately 90 days to resolve the discrepancies between names and Social Security numbers.
Where discrepancies could not be resolved, the employers could either terminate the employee or continue employment and risk sanctions from DHS. Sanctions for a first offense could include a fine of $2,200 per employee. DHS planned to outline this process in an attachment to SSA "no-match" letters.
In a lawsuit filed on August 29, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and other groups claimed the DHS rule would threaten the jobs of US citizens and legal immigrant workers due to inaccuracies in the SSA database. According to a report by the SSA inspector general, 17.8 million of the database's 435 million records contain errors that could result in a discrepancy report about a legal worker.
Judge Maxine M. Chesney of the US District Court of Northern California agreed that the plaintiffs have a valid argument. She set a hearing for October 1 and issued a restraining order prohibiting SSA from mailing the letters with the affixed DHS guidelines.
SSA then requested that the hearing be moved to September 19 because any delay in mailing the letters would cause a bureaucratic logjam and disrupt the processing of routine retirement and disability claims. On September 6, the judge denied SSA's request to advance the hearing.
SSA had already delayed the mailing of "no-match" letters due to this year's congressional debates on comprehensive immigration reform. It now expects the mailing backlog to extend into 2008.
The folloowing section, "Background," has a lot of good information about the "No Match" letters and what to do about them. One of the DHS documents linked in the article includes this:
Q: What should I do?
A: You should take reasonable steps to resolve the mismatch, and apply these reasonable steps uniformly to all employees listed in the enclosed SSA letter. It is possible that a mismatch was the result of a clerical error on the part of the employee, the employer, or the government.
You should:
1) Promptly (no later than 30 days) check your records to ensure that the mismatch was not the result of an error on your part;
2) If this does not resolve the problem, ask your employee to confirm the accuracy of your records;
3) If necessary, ask the employee to resolve the issue with SSA;
4) If you were able to successfully resolve the mismatch, make sure you have followed all of the instructions in the enclosed SSA letter. You should also verify that the correction has been made by using the Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS) administered by SSA, and retain a record of the date and time of your verification. SSNVS can be accessed through www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/ssnv.htm or by telephone at 1-800-772-6270; and
5) If none of the foregoing measures resolves the matter within 90 days of receipt of this letter, you should complete, within three days, a new I-9 Form as if the employee in question were newly hired, except that no document may be used to verify the employee’s authorization for work that uses the questionable Social Security number and no document may be used to verify the employee’s identity that does not have a photograph of the employee.
If you cannot confirm that the employee is authorized to work (by following the above procedures), you risk liability for violating the law by knowingly continuing to employ unauthorized persons.
It seems to me that Dr. Hirsch, Meg Whitman's husband, was following that procedure when he gave the letter to the maid and asked her to look into it. Where he failed was in the follow-up to see that the discrepancy had been resolved.
How long will it be before the Attorney General issues a warrant to arrest the maid on charges of immigration fraud? That's a federal beef.
I found this while searching for "No Match Letter.' This is from Migration Informatin Source:
Federal Court Halts Sending of "No-Match" Letters
September 17, 2007
A federal judge in California temporarily halted the Social Security Administration (SSA) from mailing approximately 140,000 "no-match" letters referencing 8 million workers as part of strengthened immigration enforcement measures the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in August.
According to the DHS regulations, which were to have been implemented as of September 14, employers would have approximately 90 days to resolve the discrepancies between names and Social Security numbers.
Where discrepancies could not be resolved, the employers could either terminate the employee or continue employment and risk sanctions from DHS. Sanctions for a first offense could include a fine of $2,200 per employee. DHS planned to outline this process in an attachment to SSA "no-match" letters.
In a lawsuit filed on August 29, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and other groups claimed the DHS rule would threaten the jobs of US citizens and legal immigrant workers due to inaccuracies in the SSA database. According to a report by the SSA inspector general, 17.8 million of the database's 435 million records contain errors that could result in a discrepancy report about a legal worker.
Judge Maxine M. Chesney of the US District Court of Northern California agreed that the plaintiffs have a valid argument. She set a hearing for October 1 and issued a restraining order prohibiting SSA from mailing the letters with the affixed DHS guidelines.
SSA then requested that the hearing be moved to September 19 because any delay in mailing the letters would cause a bureaucratic logjam and disrupt the processing of routine retirement and disability claims. On September 6, the judge denied SSA's request to advance the hearing.
SSA had already delayed the mailing of "no-match" letters due to this year's congressional debates on comprehensive immigration reform. It now expects the mailing backlog to extend into 2008.
The folloowing section, "Background," has a lot of good information about the "No Match" letters and what to do about them. One of the DHS documents linked in the article includes this:
Q: What should I do?
A: You should take reasonable steps to resolve the mismatch, and apply these reasonable steps uniformly to all employees listed in the enclosed SSA letter. It is possible that a mismatch was the result of a clerical error on the part of the employee, the employer, or the government.
You should:
1) Promptly (no later than 30 days) check your records to ensure that the mismatch was not the result of an error on your part;
2) If this does not resolve the problem, ask your employee to confirm the accuracy of your records;
3) If necessary, ask the employee to resolve the issue with SSA;
4) If you were able to successfully resolve the mismatch, make sure you have followed all of the instructions in the enclosed SSA letter. You should also verify that the correction has been made by using the Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS) administered by SSA, and retain a record of the date and time of your verification. SSNVS can be accessed through www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/ssnv.htm or by telephone at 1-800-772-6270; and
5) If none of the foregoing measures resolves the matter within 90 days of receipt of this letter, you should complete, within three days, a new I-9 Form as if the employee in question were newly hired, except that no document may be used to verify the employee’s authorization for work that uses the questionable Social Security number and no document may be used to verify the employee’s identity that does not have a photograph of the employee.
If you cannot confirm that the employee is authorized to work (by following the above procedures), you risk liability for violating the law by knowingly continuing to employ unauthorized persons.
It seems to me that Dr. Hirsch, Meg Whitman's husband, was following that procedure when he gave the letter to the maid and asked her to look into it. Where he failed was in the follow-up to see that the discrepancy had been resolved.
How long will it be before the Attorney General issues a warrant to arrest the maid on charges of immigration fraud? That's a federal beef.
