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?"
This article clearly states that the government has the information to really bust these employers of illegals, lets see if they have the willingness to do it.
The IRS: An enemy agency. (But you already knew that.)
Admin Moderator,
Could you move this thread to Front Page News, if possible. Thank you.
If there are privacy laws that agencies follow it would be considered an illegal act to do otherwise.
If Congressman Hayworth doesn't like it, he needs to do his job and change the laws.
With minuscule exceptions anything done by government can be done better by private industry. Just try to pay at the gas pump with a bogus Visa, Master Card and see how far you get. The card number is verified in seconds and unlike the stupid SS number the account number itself has checksums built in so you cannot just create a number that works unless you know the checksum schema.
Bill O. had a guest on the other night suggesting that the government turn over the verification business to one of the credit card companies. With all their warts they are still much better than any government agency.
--also illustrated by the relative performance of all levels of government vs. Wal-mart after Katrina--
I believe it is. I've been telling people for a while now that illegals are the catylist for the dramatic increase of identity theft in our country.
As far as privacy laws are concerned, I think the appointed heads of these agencies (appointed by Bush) are just saying that as justification for not forwarding this information to the INS (or whatever they are called these days), local U.S. Attorney's offices for prosecution and other Federal and State law enforcement agencies. If the IRS wanted to prosecute you for tax fraud, they would have no problems forwarding your confidential information to the U.S. Attorney's Office for your prosecution.
There are two types sent out by both the SSA and the IRS, the employer "no match letter" and the employee "no match letter."
This crap as much as anything else inspired my new tag line.
If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!
As I stated in an earlier post, the heads of these agencies (IRS and Social Security), both Bush appointees, are saying this to justify or cover-up their unwillingness to share this information with local U.S. Attorneys offices and other pertinent Federal law enforcement and immigration agencies and also various state law enforcement agencies as well.
Trust me, neither the IRS nor Social Security would have no problem in sharing your private/confidential information with pertinent U.S. Attorney's Offices, other Federal and even State law enforcement agencies if they wanted to bust you for tax fraud. The "Privacy" claim is just a smokescreen.
There are legit privacy laws. Just like that CIA operative who chose to give out classified info in an unlawful matter so it should be for them.
Good idea. We should all do it.
The privacy is just a smokescreen by these agency heads to justify or cover up their unwilligness to share evidence of crimes being committed to other Federal and State Law Enforcement agencies. In the CIA operatives case, she shared "classified" information (not "Privacy" information) with someone outside the government (Washington Post), not to a Federal Law enforcement agency. That is a violation of the law.
Since when is it a violation of "privacy" to share evidence of a crime from one federal agency to another federal agency (especially a federal law enforcement or federal immigration enforcement agency)? Again, these agencies would have no concerns about your "privacy" if they saw evidence of tax fraud or other crimes you may have committed. They'd forward evidence they collected that you were committing a crime to the pertinent Federal Law enforcement agency in a heartbeat.
Do you have the link to the FBI tip line that you can post here? Thanks.
Either the law is the law or it isn't. Too chose to believe that it is not would be no different than total anarchy.
I have access to social security numbers where I work. If I was to start releasing them arbitrary to anyone who asked for them I have no doubt my employer who hesitate to fire my butt.
FIGURE 1: STATUS OF THE EARNINGS SUSPENSE FILE (Tax Years 1937-2000) in CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE REPORT Social Security Administration Benefits Related to Unauthorized Work, A-03-03-23053 (March, 2003), shows some interesting things about the Earnings Suspense File (ESF).
Not only does it show the explosive (and still exloding) spike in the 1990's but it shows that following the 1986 amnesty and "reform" there was a decrease in volume of records in the file.
What does that mean?
Well, the SSA does not delete earnings statements from the ESF unless it can transfer the earnings to a valid SSN
Amnesty -- by any name -- creates valid SSNs and the SSA will transfer past earnings data submitted with bogus SSNs to valid SSNs. It helps to have your old W-2s showing the bogus SSNs you used.
To the best of my knowledge it was a 2004 law that finally required SS benefits be earned with authorized work from 2004 on. ILLEGAL aliens can get SS benefits based upon all bogus SSNs prior to 2004 once they become legal "guest workers," or through their own efforts they become legal and acquire a valid SSN.
It's OBL B.S. that ILLEGAL aliens pay into SS and don't get benefits -- by now even the 2004 law has probably been gutted, that's the pattern with all these "reforms."
Then there's ILLEGAL aliens and those pesky individual taxpayer identification numbers handed out by the IRS like candy starting with the Clinton Administration -- another fine mess our anointed ones got us into.
Do you work for the Government? Do you have employees where you work whose social security number doesn't match or is being used elsewhere? Are you a lawyer or privacy expert?
Please answer my question; When is it a violation of "privacy" for one FEDERAL agency to share evidence of a crime with another FEDERAL agency (especially a FEDERAL law enforcement or FEDERAL immigration enforcement agency)? Do you think it is good "privacy" practice not to notify someone who's SSN is being used fraudulently?
I have an idea - dismantle BOTH agencies and let them get real jobs. We will institute a national sales tax and privatize SS. Also it neatly solves our problem of not having enough low paid workers to pick lettuce and mow lawns, does it not? ;) BTTT
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.
Where have all the whistle-blowers gone?
That is how the link appears on the Drudge Report site.
I agree.
There might be one still around. Maybe that is where this reporter got at least some of her information. She did report on internal "audits" (if that is the right term), showing how the one restaurant chain had over 4,000 employees using bogus or stolen SSN's, along with the child from Utah whose SSN was fraudulently used as employee SSN's over 700 times in 42 states.
The details could just as well have come from Congressional hearings.
Washington knows but simply does not care to act -- or more likely Washington fears to act.
The annual "no match" letters sent out by SSA to the millions of miscreants create a cat 5 fire storm.
Unions and such immigrant "rights" organizations as National Immigration Law Center (NILC) go ballistic -- Administration and Congress critters cringe and run.
The critters fear the wrath and retributions -- could be a suspension of contributions.
The NILC others in the immigrant "rights" industry are supported by
The California Endowment
Ford Foundation
Four Freedoms Fund
Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Open Society Institute
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Rosenberg Foundation
State Bar of California – Legal Services Trust Fund Program
U.S. Dept. of Justice – Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices.
Big business gives big too and the Washington critters know they won't get their share if Washington makes law breakers beware.
Ping!
This broke last year, there was Congressional testimony regarding the 'privacy' issues of the Master Suspense File.
Glad to see it's being reported on again, I wish it was reported on weekly!
True, the IRS is the collection agency for the International Bankers,(The Federal Reserve Bank.)
<< With minuscule exceptions ...... >>
Please list three of those?
<< Scare off the employers and you cut off a main attraction for illegals to want to come here or stay here.
As G. Gordon Liddy calls it: "the electromagent of jobs" that draws [Criminal aliens] into the country >>
On this one Mr Liddy is so far off the mark as to be effectively not even hearing let alone answering the question.
The criminal alien invasion is incited, organized, aided, abetted and facilitated, for the purpose of disposessing Americans of ownership of either our country or its government, by the United States feral gummint. Specifically by the activist "Democrats" who comprise more than 90% of the permanent bureaucracy.
Most of the "farm work" done by criminal aliens is directly subsidised, at the cost, annually, of Scores of Billions of Dollars, by the feral gummint and produces the humungous mountains of unwanted and unsaleable agricultural produce of every description that bankrupts friendly nation's farmers and by being dumped by USAID and other redundant agencies has completely wiped several previously net-exporting agrarian countries, Somalia, for example, out of existence.
Most of us, every darned day, meet at least one of the incompetent former workers in a wide variety of low-demand fields who've been displaced by criminal aliens. They now pick up checks for attending at make-work positions created for them by the Post Office, INS/ICE -- or at the DMV.
And the unemployment rate among work-seeking American youth is far in excess of 50%. Criminal aliens have been used to deprive several generations of America's youth of first, after school, part-time and/or college-supporting jobs.
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