Tales of Dreams Shattered by "No-Match Letters"

"I have been a citizen of the United States for 18 years," testified Fernando Tinoco at last Wednesday's National Workers' Rights Board (WRB) Hearing about Social Security No-Match Letters. "I have a home and a family. I have son born and raised in the United States, too. You can say that I have been living the immigrant dream in America. All of that changed in March, 2006." Tinoco's immigrant dream fell apart after landing a job that month at Tyson Foods. Two hours after starting work at Tyson, Tinoco was fired because the company said his Social Security number was no good. Despite having "had that social for 30 years and never had a problem with it at any other company," Tinoco spent hours and days going back and forth between government agencies and the company in a fruitless attempt to clear up the mistake. Tinoco's story was just one of those heard at the December 5th National WRB Hearing, convened by Jobs with Justice and the Low-Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition. WRB members hearing testimony at the hearing included US Representative Xavier Becerra (CA), RI State Representative David Segal, Reverend Nelson Johnson, Marcel Reid of ACORN, Thomas Shellabarger of the  U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Aurora Vasquez of the Advancement Project. The "no match" letters are notices that the Social Security Administration (SSA) sends once per year to employers who report a certain number of discrepancies between their employment records and SSA's database. According to the government's own records, 70 percent of the discrepancies belong to U.S. citizens. The Bush Administration adopted a rule in September which would require that the SSA include a notice from the Department of Homeland Security along with the "No Match" letters instructing employers on the steps they need to take in response to the letter, including firing workers.  Groups including the AFL-CIO and the ACLU have filed a lawsuit to stop the SSA from sending these letters.  As of December, the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily withdrawn the original rule change that would have required the SSA to send the letters and will propose a new rule early next year. WRB members heard testimony from workers, policy experts, and from members of impacted communities about the effects of these letters, including how "No match" letters have been used by employers to defeat worker organizing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the National WRB pledged to create a report on the detrimental impact on workers of using the No-Match letters as a supposed means of immigration enforcement and to reach out to the SSA , to members of Congress, and to the media with their findings.  The WRB also pledged to support the work of the Low-Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition and to work with them to continue to expose the harms of the No-Match letters. -Reported by Allison Fletcher Acosta