Thousands of workers unable to fix the discrepancies are often being fired or forced to leave their jobs. Many workers are being fired without even having a chance to prove whether they have work permits. The National Immigration Law Center estimates that as many as 100,000 workers may have already lost their jobs as a result of the letters.

The Mercury News in California ran a May 15 article on a spate of firings from companies in the Bay Area, many of them involving union members. "Some employers set artificial deadlines for employees to fix errors under threat of termination, and some demand documentation from employees, which can be illegal as the Social Security letter itself states," the paper reported.

The Social Security Administration claims the operation is not aimed at immigrant workers, but that they are tackling a "bookkeeping problem," in the words of the Washington Post.

A worker can receive a "no-match" letter for discrepancies as common as a misspelled name in the employer’s records.

"The impact is enormous," said Cecilia Muñoz of the National Council of La Raza to the Washington Post. "We are hearing about it from all over the country."

A recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the number of workers without work permits to be less than 4 percent of the U.S. labor force. These workers are mainly concentrated in construction, textile, meatpacking, agriculture, and the hotel industry. Federal officials reported some $4.9 billion was received in 1999, the last year records are available, from workers and employers in which the Social Security number did not match government files.

The government moves won backing from anti-immigrant organizations. David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, welcomed the agency’s steps, saying that the government "had to crack down on fake social security numbers as part of its anti-terrorist campaign," according to the Washington Post. He added that the "government couldn’t announce measures to tighten the border and increase tracking of visiting foreigners while ignoring the key U.S. identity number."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home