Posted on 04/23/2006 7:35:11 AM PDT by radar101
Two federal agencies are refusing to turn over a mountain of evidence that investigators could use to indict the nation's burgeoning work force of illegal immigrants and those who employ them.
Last week, immigration authorities trumpeted the arrests of nearly 1,200 illegal workers in a massive sting on a single company, but they admit that they relied on old-fashioned confidential informants and an unsolicited tip to get their investigation going.
It didn't have to be that hard.
The IRS and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of the bosses who knowingly hire them.
But they keep those facts secret.
“If the government bothered to look, it could find abundant evidence of illegal aliens gaming our system and the unscrupulous employers who are aiding and abetting them,” said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.
The two agencies don't analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud – and they won't share their millions of records so that law enforcement agencies can do that, either.
Privacy laws, they say, prohibit them from sharing their files with anyone, except in rare criminal investigations.
But the agencies don't even use the power they have.
The IRS doesn't fine even the most egregious employers who repeatedly submit inaccurate data about their workers. The Social Security Administration does virtually nothing to alert citizens whose Social Security numbers are being used by others.
Evidence abounds within their files, according to an analysis by Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Charlotte Observer.
One internal study found that a restaurant company had submitted 4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers. Other firms submit inaccurate names or numbers reports for nearly all of their employees. One child's Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states.
“That's the kind of evidence we want,” says Paul Charlton, the U.S. attorney in Arizona. He regularly prosecutes unauthorized workers but says it's hard to prove employers are involved in the crime.
“Anything that suggests they had knowledge . . . is a good starting point. If you see the same Social Security number a thousand times, it's kind of hard for them to argue they didn't know.”
The potential crimes are so obvious that the failure to provide such information to investigators raises questions about Washington's determination to end the widespread hiring of illegal immigrants at cut-rate pay.
For years, the illicit work force has ballooned.
An estimated 7 million unauthorized workers are gainfully employed in the United States. They're picking crops, building homes and tending yards in a shadow economy at work every day. In some cases, they work for the government on public projects that pay them taxpayer money. They've built roads in North Carolina, military housing in California and even helped reconstruct the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks, until law enforcement got word.
They also work at airports, seaports, nuclear plants and other sites vulnerable to U.S. security.
Those are the sites where immigration officials have focused their attention. But on Thursday, they announced a new push toward busting bosses who hire unauthorized workers.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has asked Congress for access to the secret earnings files, a tool he says would help “get control of this illegal work force.”
The IRS wants to protect the privacy of its records because disclosing them might cause companies and employees to stop reporting income and paying taxes – and go underground where exploitation is more certain.
“At least now,” IRS commissioner Mark Everson told Congress in February, “we are collecting some taxes in these areas, and we are working to collect even more.”
The records at issue are the earnings reports, sent by employers along with money withheld for taxes and Social Security.
They contain workers' names and Social Security numbers, and when they don't match Social Security records, the information is set aside in what's called the Earnings Suspense File.
Created in 1937, the file contains about 255 million unmatched wage reports totaling $520 billion paid into Social Security but not credited to individual accounts.
Typos and name changes can cause wage reports to not match Social Security records. But increasingly, officials cite unauthorized workers using bogus Social Security numbers as a driving force behind the mismatched files.
The incorrect worker files mushroomed during the 1990s, as migrants poured into the United States. Almost half of the inaccurate reports come from such industries as agriculture, construction and restaurants, which rely on unauthorized labor.
“We believe the chief cause of (unmatched) wage items . . . is unauthorized work by non-citizens,” Social Security's Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll told Congress in February.
The IRS also receives the mismatch information. It tries to match workers involved to its records, then probes to see whether the workers are paying taxes.
Particularly disturbing is that possibly millions of the Social Security numbers belong to other people.
In Utah, after Social Security provided data for one criminal probe, investigators discovered that Social Security numbers of 2,000 children were being used by other people.
“What do you think we'd find if we had the ability to analyze all of their information?” said Kirk Torgensen, Utah's chief deputy attorney general. “It would be invaluable. How short-sighted is it that the government doesn't follow this trail?”
To work lawfully in the United States, individuals must have valid Social Security numbers or authorization from the Department of Homeland Security. But the law doesn't require companies to verify that workers give them names and numbers that match Social Security records.
So most companies don't check.
That loophole, created by Congress in 1986, makes it hard to prove whether employers know they're hiring illegal workers.
Some of the country's most successful prosecutions have come with help from Social Security, which will open specific files once a criminal investigation is under way.
Most immigrants simply use Social Security numbers to get work, experts say.
They make up numbers, buy them on forged cards or steal them.
But their demand has fueled a massive industry of suppliers who make fraudulent documents or steal real ones.
Federal officials downplay the risks that people face when others use their numbers for work. Safeguards are in place to protect retirement and disability benefits, they say.
Lenders, too, say most won't lend money if an applicant's Social Security number doesn't match the name on record.
But sometimes those safeguards fail.
Prosecutors and consumer groups say they see plenty of fraud committed with stolen Social Security numbers.
In Utah, prosecutors charged dozens of immigrants who got lured into a fraud ring to buy homes. The immigrants managed to obtain 87 home loans using Social Security numbers they'd obtained.
Jay Foley warned that obtaining someone's number can also be the first step toward total identity theft. He started the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego after his wife became a victim.
“Someone can open credit in your name. You can be hounded by collection agencies,” Foley said. “I've seen people lose their homes and their marriages over this.” Finding the proof Government studies suggest that reporting errors are so frequent that some companies must be aware they are employing illegal workers.
Federal auditors found:
8,900 of the nation's 6 million employers accounted for 30 percent of inaccurate reports.
40 companies repeatedly appear on the list of the top 100 offenders.
33,000 errant earnings reports were filed by one company in a single year.
4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers were submitted by one company.
Then the illegals would be afraid to get hired and at the same time need to look for work.. When the employer was paid either way.. Would make for a situation far to risky to chance.. I say thats the capitialistic way.. Theres money in finding them illegals and legals that are no longer legal.. And before being deported they could be offered a job building "the WALL".. across the Mexican border.. with a possible green card awaiting good workers..
A very interesting idea. Why couldn't those "bounties" be offered by private parties through donations just as the MMP fence will be? We, of course, first need to "prod" our gubbmint into actually doing something with illegal foreign nationals that are turned in other than catch-and-release.
Collusion with the Council on Foreign Relations and its plan called Building a North American Community.
Without debate, our "leaders" are implementing this plan. It's been decided.
Understatement of the century.
That would be possible IF many/most of our federal givernment reps are not globalists already.. like George Bush.. A massive glut of foreign nationals serves the globalist agenda.. Could be thats WHY we have a alien problem in the first place.. Are you a globalist?.. is NOT one of the questions we ask our candidates..
I intend to join in the blitzkrieg of the Senate and House tomorrow however bleak things appear to be. I have a phone card and I'm not afraid to use it. ;^)
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