In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Senior Legal Fellow George Fishman explains that verifying Social Security numbers could be the solution to two issues: States’ need for tools to help identify those eligible to vote in the United States and DHS’s need for tools to uncover employers who are knowingly employing illegal aliens.

Voter Eligibility Verification

Executive Order: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will be giving states and localities the ability to check SSNs of individuals registering to vote and those already on the voter rolls to verify citizenship.

History: Fishman reflects on his role in proposing this idea nearly three decades ago as part of the 1997 Voter Eligibility Verification Act. 

How it will work: State and local governments will be given access to federal databases through an upgrade of USCIS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to confirm citizenship.

Employment Eligibility Verification

No-Match Letters: Although the administration has not announced any action on re-instating “no-match” letters, the SSA could revive the practice of notifying employers when a worker’s Social Security number doesn’t match the name listed in the SSA’s database.

History: The episode covers the history of no-match letters, including their origins, past implementations, and abandonment by the Obama and Biden administrations. 

Policy Recommendations: Fishman recommends that SSA resume issuing no-match letters and DHS reissue its regulations instructing employers that they may be found to know that they are employing illegal aliens if they don’t take certain actions upon receipt of no-match letters.

Host

Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies

Guest

George Fishman is the Senior Legal Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Related

The Trump Administration is Empowering States to Verify Voters Citizenship

“Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”

Reviving No-Match Letters: A powerful tool against illegal employmentIs the Harvard TRO Likely to be Effective?

DHS Pulls Harvard’s Student-Visa Certification Authority

Intro Montage

Voices in the opening montage:

Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.
Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.
President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.
Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.
Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.
Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.
Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.
Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.
Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.
Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".