PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS September 7, 2007 The Administration recently announced that it would begin advising employers when names and social security numbers submitted to the Social Security Administration do not match.  These so-called “no match” letters have been used for years, but until publication of the new rule they did not require resolution of the mismatched data. The new “no match letter provides a valuable enforcement tool for the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch.  Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 employers are required to verify that people they hire are legally eligible to work in the United States, and a social security card is a form of proof of that status.  Failures to comply result in fines. However, the epidemic use of fraudulent social security cards by illegal aliens has undermined the intended result of that requirement – illegal aliens still quickly find work by presenting cheap, easily-available fraudulent cards. Until this regulation was issued, recording a social security number offered by an employee provided a defense against a charge that the employer has knowingly hired an illegal alien.  The “no match” letter removes that as a defense by placing the employer on notice that there is possibly a problem with the status of one of his employees.  The letter describes what he must do about it.  If he follows those steps, he is no longer liable if the individual turns out to be an illegal alien. Over time, this process will drive millions of illegal aliens from the workforce as their fraudulent social security numbers no longer serve them.  Ultimately, the inability to find work will result in them returning to their homes abroad.  The jobs they held will be available to legal workers in the U.S.  This effort by the Administration, though, must be widespread, firm and relentless. There is opposition to it, of course, from several quarters.  Employer groups, who have vested interests in the continuing oversupply of labor that hold down wages, oppose it.  Union leadership is always eager for new members and their dues regardless of the legal status of the member and of the impact depressed wages and working conditions have on legal workers.  And, of course, there are the groups whose interests lie more in ethnic identity than in the national good.  Acting jointly, several of those parties have succeeded in finding a federal judge to enjoin the process – it is now on hold. NAFBPO believes, however, that good sense will prevail, and a higher court will find that the overall interests of the legal American resident outweigh those of the trespasser on our soil.  Although delayed, the “no match” letter will ultimately be permitted.  The weeding out of illegal aliens from our workforce will be a long, slow process, but that is a good thing.  Its gradualness will give everyone concerned a chance to adapt to a new reality:  American jobs should go to legal residents, and wages and working conditions should be geared to a domestic labor supply, not depressed by foreign competition.    Kent Lundgren Chairman National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers