I don't know who let them collect this info. Of course, best case scenario would be the abolishion of the IRS and SSA. :)
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Posted on 04/23/2006 8:07:30 AM PDT by AmericaOne
WASHINGTON -- 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 the firms that 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 acknowledge that they relied on confidential informants and an unsolicited tip.
It didn't have to be that hard.
The Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including the names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of those who 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 law enforcement authorities can't do so because the agencies won't share their data.
Privacy laws prohibit that, they say.
The agencies also don't use the power that they have.
The IRS doesn't fine employers who repeatedly submit inaccurate data on workers. Social Security 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 for nearly all 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. "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.
An estimated 7 million unauthorized workers are employed in the United States. They're picking crops, building homes and tending yards. In some cases, they work for the government on public projects that pay them with taxpayer money.
They've built roads in North Carolina and military housing in California and even helped rebuild the Pentagon after 9-11, until law enforcement found out.
They also work at airports, seaports and nuclear plants.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has asked Congress for access to earnings reports, sent by employers with money withheld for taxes and Social Security.
The reports 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 representing $520 billion paid to workers but not credited to their Social Security earnings records.
The incorrect worker files mushroomed during the 1990s as immigrants poured into the United States. Almost half the inaccurate reports come from industries such as agriculture, construction and restaurants.
"We believe the chief cause of [unmatched] wage items ... is unauthorized work by noncitizens," Social Security Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll told Congress in February.
The IRS also receives the mismatch information.
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 inquiry, investigators discovered that the 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 shortsighted is it that the government doesn't follow this trail?"
Wife was told by the IRS last year someone in San Angelo[5 hrs from here]that some one was using her SSN#.I need to tell her to write a letter to them,otherwise I forsee major problems with her tax filings from now on.I bet they make her show every piece of ID she has ever had,and do nothing to locate the offender.She told them over the phone she has not been there in 5 years,but I would bet it fell on deaf ears.More than likely she has been 'tagged' in her file.
....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 representing $520 billion paid to workers but not credited to their Social Security earnings records.
The politicians gleefully spend that extra money and just leave a bookkeeping entry behind. For that reason they don't want it changed. They love the extra money that is taken in but never needs to be paid out.
The Democrats are the ones protecting this scam and always have been. Why are you trying to blame Bush?
I'm not gonna answer your questions. I'm just saying I have access to all sorts of personal info and since I've too signed agreements not to query or hand it out arbitrarily or else my butt would be get kicked out the door.
Your link works just fine.
Because he is trying to grant amnesty to tens of millions of illegals (criminals) and their families, that is why. It is just natural to suspect that he also told the heads of these agencies (his appointees) not to give out evidence of illegals and/or employers to other Federal law or immigration agencies.
You are jumping to a very unwarranted conclusion. Thinking like "it is just natural to suspect" will lead to erronious conclusions more often than not.
As I told you, that process has been going on a very long time before Bush was ever elected. Bush would have had to tell them to stop doing it, or perhaps change a law, if he even knew about it.
We both need to know the facts of the matter as to the law and how that was done and when. Although I don't know I say so while you pretend to know and you don't.
Since all they're trying to accomplish is a show of force to offset the wall ("Look! We're making arrests! No need for a big honkin' wall when we're so efficient!"), they're not looking to arrest TOO many people.
Thanks.
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Although violating immigration laws is apparently not much of a crime (even though it really is). However using a fraudulent SSN IS a felony and the fake ids that go along with it are also serious crimes. And these people, skilled in identity theft, will be the very ones eligible for amnesty.
Makes you sick, doesn't it.
Another hole blown in the argument here that they are just here to take jobs Americans won't take (they have to use stolen SSN numbers to get hired). Also blows holes in the arguments that these people are not criminals - their committing the crime of identity theft along with violating our immigration laws by their very presence in our country.
I do not believe that it's true that the money will never be paid out to ILLEGALs. Do you have a source to cite that prohibits SSA from transferring ILLEGALs' earnings data from the ESF to SSA master earnings file once they have a valid SSN? (Except as noted in my above post; i.e., a 2004 law.)
Yes, the ESF has data that goes all the way back to 1937 but the ESF volume (size) has become a major problem for SSA owing to the explosion of bogus SSNs and ITINs issued by the IRS.
President Bush did not start the problem -- as the article noted it exploded in the 1990s. You say it's not the President's problem.
Doesn't a President have the authority to direct SSA to make the ESF data available to other agencies? The SSA sends out employer "no match" letters to tens of thousands of employers that submit W-2 earnings data on ten or more employees using bogus SSNs. but the SSA has no enforcement authority.
ping
I'd like to dispel the common belief that ILLEGALs pay into SS but can never collect therefore we get "free" money.
"SSA's practice allows noncitizens to work illegally in the U.S. economy for a number of years, eventually acquire a valid SSN and have these earnings posted to their valid SSNs, and then receive OASDI benefits as a result of those earnings. As noted earlier, SSA does not consider the work-authorization status of the individual when they earned the wages; it only considers whether the individual can prove he or she paid Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes as part of this work."
It's from the source I cited above, Social Security Administration Benefits Related to Unauthorized Work.
However another source says, "On March 2, 2004, the President signed into law The Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-203), under which an alien whose application for benefits is based on a Social Security Number (SSN) issued January 1, 2004, or later is required to have work authorization at the time an SSN is assigned, or at any later time, to gain insured status under the Social Security program."
Perhaps I am mistaken but I believe that it is still possible for large numbers of ILLEGALs to receive SS benefits based upon unauthorized employment prior to 2004 once they acquire a valid SSN.
Then there's the "totalization" agreement with Mexico -- still not made available to Congress or the public -- that was signed at least a year ago.
One way or another the Bush Administration, et al. want to give (have given?) Mexico the keys to our SS "lockbox."
Oh, NOW there's a call for what I've been saying for years - cross-collate the SSI and IRS records and compare the results to the DOJ's database.
It's extremely frustrating to know that all the information is there but the powers that be keep sitting on it.
I still can't figure why Bush continues to thumb his nose at his conservative base. I guess he hasn't learned from watching what happened to 41 when you thumb your nose at your base.
Rather than being defeated for re-election like his father, he may see the Rats win back both houses of Congress (which I would rather not see) due to conservatives staying home because his pissed them off on immigration (especially if the treasonists succeed in passing their amnesty bill) and of course he will sign it into law.
He will then face the very real possibility of impeachment. And if his approval ratings continue to nosedive, he will not only be impeached by the rat controlled house, but will likely be convicted by the Senate and removed from office. No way any spineless Republican Senator will vote to acquit him of any charge when they see his approval ratings in the 20's or teens. Especially if the normal, conservative activist type base, still steamed at any immigration sellout, is not demanding Bush be saved.
There might be more interest in this article in the days to come. Matt Drudge picked up on the article and now has it posted/linked on his website.
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