Cost of security is privacy: The Department of Homeland Security is pushing Congress to pass legislation giving its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division access to Social Security databases so it can identify mismatched and fake SS numbers used by illegal aliens. Remembering the heckuva job DHS did during Hurricane Katrina and the fact that DHS employees have been arrested for trying to pick up 14-year-olds over the Internet, it sounds like a great idea to let them “mine” data from Social Security’s databases. The plan, which some say just cobbles together existing initiatives into a “new” program, was proposed last Thursday.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department wants Congress to pass legislation that would let investigators with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency access Social Security Administration databases. According to ICE, millions of workers have given Social Security numbers to their employers that do not match their names, but ICE does not have access to data to investigate this activity.
“One of the key challenges that supports illegal migration is abuse of our Social Security system and the Social Security document,” Chertoff said during a news conference. “We’ve been urging Congress to pass legislation, now before the Senate, that would grant the Department of Homeland Security some carefully crafted access to Social Security no-match data so we can detect those employers who are systematically employing workers, despite the fact that there’s an obvious mismatch between the names and the Social Security numbers in question.”
The overall strategy announced Thursday has three elements: identify and remove criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and other immigration violators in the country; build strong worksite enforcement and compliance programs to deter illegal employment; and uproot criminal infrastructure domestically and abroad that supports illegal immigration, criminal trafficking and document or benefits fraud.
ICE Administrator Julie Myers said her agency also is training prison officers on how to deport illegal immigrants already in custody. She said 80,000 incarcerated immigrants were deported last year, and the plan is to increase that number by 10 percent each year for the next two years.
What a great plan — get rid of all the maids, day laborers and empty the prisons at the same time.
The lure of jobs in the US is the overriding reason why people come to the US illegally. To stop illegal immigration, the lure of the job must be eliminated. “Packages” of documents including invalid SSN’s can be purchased on the streets in Tijuana, San Diego, Los Angeles, etc. for as little as $50. Without this interface into Soc. Sec. those attempting (albeit infrequently, it seems) to enforce the present immigration laws can not in many cases affirmatively establish whether the employee has a bona fide SSN.
This is something that should have been included in the original legislation that included employment sanctions (1986). So it’s only 20 years overdue.