Suman Raghunathan

Finally, Victory on No-Match: Good for all Workers

Today, a California federal judge issued a final injunction prohibiting the federal Department of Homeland Security from using so-called No-Match letters to enforce immigration law.

Finally, someone from the feds who sees the light on No-Match.

As I’ve written in the past, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has for the past few years been sending out letters telling employers that there are discrepancies in their workers’ records which might, possibly, maybe, indicate the worker is undocumented and therefore not allowed to work in the US. Until recently these letters were strictly on an FYI basis.

Now, to really get to the bottom of this, let’s talk about this database, which is no walk in the park. The Social Security Administration database only has a 50% accuracy rate – errors often stem from a misspelling of someone’s name, outdated address information, or even someone getting married and therefore changing their name. The bottom line is, no matter how small the error, no matter how little of a link there was between the error and someone’s immigration status – all of these blips on the SSA’s radar show up as red flags saying that a worker may be undocumented.

The Department of Homeland Security wanted to force employers actually follow up on their possibly, maybe, potentially undocumented workers within 90 days – and if the matter couldn’t be straightened out in that time to fire said workers or incur steep fines of up to $10,000. Now, apart from the havoc this would create for business owners nationwide; apart from this being a faulty Band-Aid that would do nothing to address the nation’s broken immigration system; and apart from the problems that stem from depending upon on a fantastically faulty database – this policy would simply open immigrant workers up to victimization at the hands of shady employers. In the process, wages and working conditions for all workers, including native-born ones, get pushed even further into the ground.

Why, you may ask?

Here’s the deal. Experience has shown us that unscrupulous employers simply use No-Match letters as a way to intimidate their workers when they start getting ornery and asking for fair pay, safe working conditions, and the right to unionize. So No-Match letters will simply give these bosses another, even more enforceable, leg upon not treating their workers well and according to existing worker protection laws that apply to all folks irrespective of their immigration status. Using No-Match letters as a proxy to enforce fundamentally unrealistic immigration policy simply makes workers more expendable to their employers whenever it’s appropriate.

Good thing No-Match is now history.

Suman Raghunathan: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 3:27 PM, Oct 10, 2007 in Immigration
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