Sunday, August 12, 2007

Advice regarding the Social Security No-Match Letters

National Immigration Law Center has released information regarding the recent DHS initiative. Included are some recommendations for immigration advocates.

It is important that advocates:

Educate workers about the final DHS rule on no-match letters.

Explain the different types of errors that can commonly result in a discrepancy.

Educate workers about their labor and civil rights such as the right to be free from discrimination, their right to be free of retaliation for exercising their rights as workers, their right to remain silent, etc.

Remind workers to request a copy of the no-match letter in the event that their employer advises them of a discrepancy with his or her SSN to ensure that the employer is indeed responding to a notice from SSA or DHS.

Be prepared for employer abuse and misuse of the DHS rule and the SSA no-match letters. It will be very important for workers to document who the employer has notified of a discrepancy: how many days each person is getting to correct the information? Are certain workers being singled out based on race, national origin, language skills, or for exercising their labor rights?

If represented by a union - the worker should notify their Union representative immediately as they may have additional rights under their union contract.

If the workers are not part of a union, get the local workers' center or other immigrant rights organization in the area involved.

Find out if there is anything else going on at the worksite - i.e. organizing campaign, litigation, etc? to see if the employer is retaliating against workers.

Conduct a thorough investigation of the working conditions and consider filing legal claims for those employment/labor violations.

for more information: www.nilc.org

for current report from DHS:

http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/SSA_Related_Info/DHS_Final_Rule/Safe-Harbor_Procedures_for_Employers_Who_Receive_No-Match_Letter.pdf

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