Immigrants, Employers Hurt by New Initiative
Feature Story by Bria Gillum - 8/13/2002
In the last few months, thousands of immigrants have been forced to leave their jobs as a result of an operation by the U.S. government to clean up Social Security records.Earlier this year, the Social Security Administration sent letters to more than 800,000 businesses, or about 7 million employees, requesting action to clear up instances where workers' names or social security numbers did not match the agency's files. The Administration took action in response to an increase in Social Security taxes paid by individuals with duplicative or nonexistent social security numbers.
Immigration experts predict that the results will affect both legal and illegal immigrant communities as well as businesses. "The impact is enormous," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza. "We're hearing about it from all over the country."
Many workers have been fired or left the job quietly as employees continue to be confronted by Social Security.
The Bush Administration denies that the letters are related to post-September 11 changes in immigration policy. It contends the new program is not targeted at immigrants and that the information is not shared with the Immigration and Naturalization Service because of privacy concerns. Furthermore, the letters themselves are not grounds for firing an employee nor do they reflect a worker's immigration status.
Nevertheless, the program is having a negative effect on both immigrants and the companies that rely on them.
