Immigration Control: A New Role for the Social Security Card.
Abstract
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) provides amnesty, under certain conditions, to illegal aliens who arrived in the United States before January 1, 1982, and to certain seasonal agricultural workers. The law also requires the nation's 7 million employees (including those born in the United States) to verify their identify and eligibility to work in this country. Each year, and estimated 65 million individuals change jobs or seek employment for the first time. The social security card is expected to be widely used to prove employment eligibility. Because of the card's key role, the law required that GAO was asked to (1) explore ways to reduce the potential for fraudulently obtaining and using social security cards and (2) identify technological alternatives for making the card more resistant to counterfeiting. The social security number application process is vulnerable to fraud. Thousands of different documents can be used in support of an application, making it difficult for SSA employees to be familiar with all of them. Also, support documents, especially birth certificates, can be obtained fraudulently or are easily counterfeited or altered, and there is no practical way to verify that the applicant is the person named on the document. The same problems apply to employer verification of employment eligibility under IRCA, but more so.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA190511
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office