Social Security numbers can be verified and/or validated. Verification is done to verify that the card holder's card indicates that he is who he says he is (simply a match between the SS card's number and the name on the card). Validation is done only to verify that the card holder's number is a valid Social Security number.
While it is difficult to verify that the card holder actually has a valid Social Security Number assigned to him, any unsophisticated do-it-yourself amateur can check the validity of any Social Security number by going to this website. And you can bet that the criminal manufacturers of fake documents obtain valid SS numbers. There is a high probability that the SS number of the reader of this page is in use by more than one illegal alien.
ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) are the numbers that are assigned to illegal aliens who file tax returns. Illegal aliens receive ITINs from the IRS when the IRS discovers that they are using phony Social Security Numbers (I'm not making this up)
What about the form I-9 that every employer must fill out on every new employee?
When I first heard about how employers had to fill out a Form I-9 on every new employee, it seemed that there should not have been a problem with work eligibility verification. But after viewing the Form I-9, incredibly, on the bottom of Instruction Page 2 it says: EMPLOYERS MUST RETAIN COMPLETED FORM I-9 PLEASE DO NOT MAIL COMPLETED FORM I-9 TO ICE OR USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Service). That's right, the employer simply must file the I-9 in his desk drawer. The only time that the ICE would encounter the I-9, is if they audited the employer -- and the ICE rarely audits employers, and then only in sting operations such as was done to Wal-Mart in 2005.
WORKING THE SYSTEM WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S APPROVAL
Most Illegals file their returns using ITINs (Individual Tax payer Identification Numbers), but attached to their returns are their W-2s bearing a social security number that belongs to someone else. View an illegal alien's actual tax return. As can be seen, the IRS does not turn incriminating evidence of fraud over to the DHS, but goes right ahead and processes fraudulent tax returns in which the W-2 forms issued by the employer have phony or stolen social security numbers, but the tax return itself is filed using an ITIN.
On the IRS web site, it states that ITINs are issued to persons who are not eligible to receive a social security number. If the attached W-2s had valid social security numbers, then the tax filers wouldn't need ITINs. When I asked one agent at the IRS office in Camarillo, California, why the IRS ignores these obvious conflicts, I was told that his instructions were to do so.
One of the more egregious frauds is the claiming of Earned Income Credit.
The IRS does not deny that it does its own flagging of multiple users of the same SSN and is completely aware of fraudulent users, but they use the excuse that it's a privacy issue that prevents them turning the information over to the DHS and from informing the true tax payer that others are using the same SSN.
But the privacy excuse doesn't hold water even with those of us with low IQs.
Use this analogy: You are a teller at a bank. You are sworn to keeping clients' personal and private information confidential, which you do. But you become aware that one of the bank's clients is embezzling from his company. Do you keep that information private, or do you report it? Common sense tells you that once you know that a crime is in progress all of the client's privacy rights are void, and you would not be breaking any privacy policies to report the crime.
When the IRS does not report unauthorized workers who are known by them to be committing fraud, to the DHS, it doesn't take a lawyer to figure out that the IRS is actually guilty "Obstruction of Justice."
EXPLICIT APPROVAL
On March 10, 2004, the House Ways and Means Subcommittees on Oversight on Social Security held a hearing on the use and misuse of ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers). These numbers, which closely resemble social security numbers (all start with the number "9"), were devised to capture revenue from individuals such as foreign investors who have earnings in the United States, but do not have Social Security numbers. Since the IRS first began issuing these card ID numbers in 1996, over seven million have been issued (as of 2004), mostly to illegal aliens. In recent years some states have begun to accept the ITIN in lieu of a social security number in issuing driver's licenses or other state identification documents -- even though the IRS itself says that ITINs are not meant for identification purposes (See IRS ITIN revision notification to all governors, fifth paragraph).
At the hearing, the Commissioner of the IRS, Mark Everson, testified that the principle mission of the service is to collect taxes and to cultivate a climate of taxpayer cooperation. He made it clear that sharing information with the Department of Homeland Security would drive illegal aliens and their taxes underground. His recommendation was to do nothing to change the law to permit information sharing.
Testifying on behalf of the U.S. General Accounting Office, Michael Brostek criticized the IRS for its laxness in issuing ITINs. He stated that his investigators were able to easily gain access to an ITIN and then used it in one state to register to vote. Brostek further stated that employers face no effective penalties for ignoring fake ITINs. This assertion was substantiated by earlier testimony that virtually no employer fines were collected last year (2003).
There is a conflict between laws against illegal immigration and tax laws requiring all individuals who earn money in the United States to pay taxes, regardless of authorization to work. This conflict is made worse because neither the IRS nor the Social Security Administration (SSA) is permitted to provide information to the Department of Homeland Security (Except within the E-Verify program which is not mandatory on a federal level). The result is that both IRS and SSA know from tax returns and Social Security tax payments who may be working illegally and where, but are barred from providing this information to immigration enforcement authorities.
E-Verify
In the past, I have been critical of the E-Verify worker verification system (formerly the Basic Pilot) because of some flaws favoring illegal alien workers -- chief among them is that the program cannot detect a stolen identity -- that is when the name on a stolen social security card matches the name on that card. Moreover, E-Verify cannot detect multiple use of the same stolen identity. This has given incentive to stolen identity brokers to rent identities.
When Arizona passed a law making it mandatory for businesses to use E-Verify, I decided to become an E-Verify Designated Agent so that I could evaluate E-Verify's effectiveness.
In spite of the flaws, I found E-Verify as a deterrence to be so effective, that illegal workers are leaving Arizona by the droves.
SO WHY DOES CONGRESS STUBBERNLY RESIST MAKING E-VERIFY MANDATORY?
I can only conclude that the majority members of congress really don't want to end illegal immigration -- the Democrats because they want amnesty to provide them with a future power base of liberal voters, and the Republicans, who on behalf of their big business constituencies, don't want to cut off the cycle of cheap illegal labor.
In spite of the information from the DHS and people like myself who know that E-Verify is the most effective tool to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining work, congress would rather listen to the excuses of advocates for illegal labor claims that E-Verify isn't reliable.
Our president and many of our open border politicians, especially the ones that advocate amnesty, keep repeating the mantra that our immigration system is broken. Guess what? They broke it! The only thing broken about our immigration laws, is that they are not enforced.
Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens would not be able to cross the border with impunity and once crossed, enjoy virtual citizenship without the intentional help of the president and the congress. Nothing exemplifies this truth more than the bizarre oxymoronic non-coordination between the IRS, Social Security Administration, and Homeland Security which allows illegals to virtually work legally in the U.S.
In the early 90s, I wrote on the subject of how the IRS encourages illegal alien tax cheating. The IRS has long known who the illegal alien tax filers are. Now with the economy in the gutter, some politicians are pretending that they had no idea of the massive fraud. This video is just the tip of the iceberg.
By Hal Netkin
11/17/2008
