WASHINGTON DC (February 7, 2020) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles "Chuck" Grassley sent a letter to Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Andrew Saul and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf seeking information on why SSA is not providing the statutorily-required information to DHS regarding noncitizens working on, and reporting wage earnings to, non-work social security numbers. Sen Grassley’s letter follows a concerning SSA Inspector General report that discussed the issue nearly 18 months ago.
“Despite the statutory information sharing requirement found in Section 414 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), the OIG report states that SSA has failed to comply with that requirement since 2007, when an information sharing agreement between SSA and DHS 'expired.' The lapse of an information sharing agreement is no excuse to allow the integrity of our Social Security system to be diminished,” Sen Grassley wrote.
“The use of non-work SSNs to obtain employment and work illegally is not an insignificant problem. The OIG report stated that approximately 364,000 people with non-work SSNs reported billions of dollars in wages over a 3-year tax period from 2014-2016. It is the responsibility of DHS to investigate aliens who are in violation of the laws of the United States, including those working without authorization.”
Full text of the letter to Commissioner Saul and Acting Secretary Wolf is below and can be found HERE.
