Employers Overlook Aliens’ Fake Documents : Black-Market Social Security Cards Often Go Unchecked for Authenticity

On many days, Doug arrives at his restaurant management job in Costa Mesa and finds one or more illegal aliens waiting at the back door of the kitchen for a job.

Bill, the owner of a sheet metal plant in Santa Ana where 40% of the employees are undocumented, says that prospective workers line up at the factory gate on most Monday mornings in case there’s an opening on his production line.

The selection of these job sites is hardly random. Through the informal grapevine in the barrios, the illegals know that these businesses, like countless other offices, factories and shops in Orange County, will hire workers without the documents required of most foreign-born job applicants.

In general, these employers aren’t worried about the authenticity of Social Security cards and work permits presented by immigrant applicants, and, perhaps, will even look the other way if their workers don’t have these papers.

“If I need a dishwasher, I need a dishwasher,” said Doug, who does not want his last name to appear for fear of riling his employer. “As long as they give me a Social Security number, I don’t care if the card is someone else’s or a fake.” Doug estimated that as many as 15 of the 20 workers in his restaurant are in the United States illegally.

Until May, 1978, most Social Security cards presented to employers were valid because obtaining a genuine card was easy. All anyone had to do was ask, and a card was issued, without any questions about citizenship. But in response to reports of abuse, Congress passed a law requiring applicants to present evidence, such as a birth certificate or passport, proving U. S. citizenship.

The result was an active black market for counterfeit cards. According to illegals in Orange County, cards can be purchased at dozens of private apartments and public locations throughout the county, including Centennial Park and Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana, for prices ranging from $25 to well over $100.

At the low end, the buyer gets a piece of paper resembling a Social Security card with absolutely no assurances that the number is valid. For $100 or more, the illegal might purchase a card with a valid number.

The validity of the number is considered important because it determines whether a worker will receive credit for paying Social Security taxes under his name. However, possessing a card with an illegitimate number is hardly disastrous.

It usually takes the Social Security Administration about four months to discover that a number is wrong or that a worker is using someone else’s number. And once the discovery is made, the agency has no way of knowing whether the discrepancy is the result of an honest mistake, such as a typographical error, or a deliberate, deceptive act.

Typically, the agency notifies the employer of the discrepancy and assigns the earnings reported on the invalid number to a special account established for wages of suspect or unknown origin. However, the actual Social Security contributions made by the worker and the employer, which would amount to a total of $996 per year for a full-time employee earning the $3.35-per-hour minimum wage, are treated like those paid by anyone else and transferred to the central Social Security account.

Neither employers nor the agency are required to unravel the confusion.

Some companies attempt to sidestep the issue of their employees’ citizenship by hiring only workers referred through the state Employment Development Department.

“Hiring from the employment department should protect us,” said Ben Bukewihge, owner of the B. P. John Furniture Co. in Irvine, a factory that has been raided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service about five times in the last five years.

Bukewihge said he assumes that the state screens the job applicants for citizenship, leaving him free to believe that the documents presented by new workers are valid.

However, Neil Rosenfeld, manager of the employment office in Santa Ana, said that such assumptions are incorrect and should not be used by employers to absolve themselves of responsibility for hiring illegals.

Rosenfeld said the state’s job registration forms ask applicants whether they are citizens. “If they lie, we have no recourse,” he said. “It’s not my feeling that we are looking for illegals. Our job is to place people in jobs and to pay unemployment insurance.”

910 Latinos Placed

Rosenfeld said that his office, which serves the huge Latino population of Santa Ana, placed 910 Latinos in jobs between July, 1985, and April, 1986, about one-third of the office’s total placements. However, he said the department had no way of determining what percentage of the placements, if any, involved illegals.

Even if an illegal is referred by the employment department, he is still required to present a Social Security card, a fact that sends many workers scrambling for fake documents.

Some of the so-called “valid” counterfeit cards are issued by savvy operators who know the codes used by the Social Security Administration and are lucky enough to select an unused random number sequence for the last four digits, according to a Social Security Administration spokesman.

However, he added, some cards are issued by counterfeiters working with crooked Social Security insiders who are in a position to assign the numbers and issue the cards. In May, a former Social Security worker was convicted in federal District Court in Los Angeles of participating in a scheme to issue about 2,000 cards during a six-month period in 1984.

No Effect From Card

Whether an illegal alien has a valid Social Security card, however, makes no difference when it comes time to collect Social Security benefits.

According to agency workers, anyone 62 years or older who can present proof of having worked at least 10 years is eligible to collect retirement benefits, regardless of citizenship.

“If the worker has records, such as (income) tax returns or W-2 forms, and we can find corroborating evidence in our files or from his employers, he can get the benefits,” said Royal Brown, a program analyst in the agency’s insurance branch. “No distinction is made on the basis of citizenship.”

Less effort is expended when it comes to reproducing “green cards,” the work permits issued to aliens who enter the United States legally. The green, wallet-size cards contain citizenship and other personal information about the owner.

However, the cards do not carry a picture of their owner, a fact that allows them to be passed among workers who might need to show an employer some identification in order to get a job.

Problem of Names

Even the problem of names offers little deterrence. Sometimes the applicant merely adopts the name of the person on the card as his own for his time on the job. One cafeteria worker in a San Clemente hospital admits that her colleagues don’t know her real name is “Concepcion,” since it is not the name on the papers she presented when she was hired seven years ago.

In other cases, employers ignore obvious discrepancies in the interests of filling their jobs quickly and with low-wage workers.

Sometimes, illegals say, green cards are more trouble than they’re worth. Because carrying a counterfeit, stolen or borrowed card can be a sure sign that a person is an illegal alien, many undocumented workers choose not to carry anything at all.

The ploy works particularly well for those who speak fluent English. When asked by authorities for their papers, these illegals often claim that they are native-born Americans of Mexican descent and, like the rest of American citizens, they are not required to carry proof of their citizenship.

“I learned English so I could pass,” said Jerry, a production supervisor at a Santa Ana manufacturing plant who has been in the United States illegally for the last 10 years. “I’ve been stopped three times, but I just show them my driver’s license, MasterCard and Sears credit cards and tell them I’m American.”