[Clips] Fake IDs are rife at state job sites

[R.A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 12:40:00 -0400
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  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Fake IDs are rife at state job sites
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<http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/18/fake_ids_are_rife_at_state_job_sites?mode=PF>

  The Boston Globe


  Fake IDs are rife at state job sites

  Mass. contractors hire the undocumented

  By Jonathan Saltzman and Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff  |  June 18, 2006

  While Republican lawmakers in Massachusetts have called for a crackdown on
  companies that hire undocumented workers, the state has provided millions
  of dollars to contractors who employed those workers, records indicate.

  A Globe analysis of nine recent public works projects -- from dormitory
  construction at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to the
  building of the new Middlesex County Jail -- revealed that of 242 workers
  on weekly payroll lists, more than a third appeared to lack legitimate
  Social Security numbers.

  On one of the payrolls reviewed, for masonry work on the UMass dormitory
  project, nearly two-thirds of the contractor's 87 workers had bogus or
  questionable Social Security numbers.

  The numbers used by the workers in many cases appeared obviously
  fraudulent. One laborer who helped build the new jail in Billerica
  submitted a number that should have immediately raised eyebrows:
  666-66-6666.

  Some numbers belonged to people who were long-deceased, the Globe found.
  Others were matched to people who live out of state and had no idea their
  numbers had been appropriated.

  The findings, though a small snapshot of the vast number of public projects
  undertaken throughout the state, suggest how the use of undocumented
  workers has extended into almost every corner of the economy. Republicans
  in Massachusetts trumpeted plans last month to stiffen fines on companies
  that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants, which is illegal under state
  law. But there is no requirement that employers, including those receiving
  public funds, demonstrate that their workers are legal, and undocumented
  workers employed on the projects say that contractors are all too happy to
  look the other way.

  Overall, the bulk of the money for the projects examined by the Globe came
  from state appropriations or state-backed bonds, though some of the
  contracts were awarded by local municipalities.

  Told of the Globe's findings, Senator Richard R. Tisei , a Wakefield
  Republican, said public money should be given only to those companies who
  hire legal residents.

  ``There should be a big hue and cry about this across the state," Tisei
  said. ``This is taxpayers' money, and taxpayers' money should be used in
  legal ways."

  Obtaining an authentic-looking Social Security card with a made-up or
  stolen number is easy, according to undocumented workers, who said they
  purchased them outside T stations or from friends. In the age of laser
  printers and graphics software, fake cards can be had for as little as $80.

  The Globe obtained weekly payroll reports filed with state and local
  authorities on the nine public projects examined. Reporters and a Globe
  researcher ran the workers' Social Security numbers through three on line
  personal information databases that compile valid Social Security numbers.
  Many yielded no matches in those databases, or they matched other people ,
  including deceased ones . In other instances, the names of the workers came
  up, but so did the names of other people, making those numbers questionable.

  In addition, workers and construction industry specialists said that hiring
  of immigrants who are here illegally was common on the public projects
  reviewed.

  In interviews with state, local, and county government officials and
  managers of companies that received contracts, a clear pattern emerged:
  none of them considered it their responsibility to verify that workers on
  the public projects were here legally.

  The state and municipal officials said they take no steps to check on the
  workers' status, saying that duty lies with the contractors. Contractors,
  in turn, said they obey federal laws that call for them to ask for
  employees' documentation, but do not require them to inquire further.

  Under federal law, employers must complete a so-called I-9 document after
  hiring an employee. The employer must examine sets of documents that
  establish the employee's identity and eligibility to work in the country.
  Some identification cards are sufficient to ful fill both requirements,
  such as a green card or a certificate of US citizenship. Other times,
  employees rely on a state or locally issued photo ID card, such as a
  driver's license, to establish their identity, and a Social Security card
  for their work eligibility.

  Federal immigration guidelines only require that the documents ``appear to
  be genuine" and stress to employers that they are not expected to be
  ``document experts." Raymond W. Houle Jr. town administrator in the small
  town of Blackstone on the Rhode Island border, said he was ``quite
  surprised" to learn payroll records show that six of the eight workers for
  M K Painting of Michigan, which painted a million-gallon steel water
  storage tank in his town, had bogus or questionable Social Security
  numbers. But he said he expected the contractor would have checked.

  ``The town did not hire these people," Houle said. ``The town hired the
  contractor."

  John Bethell, superintendent of M K Painting, said he was unaware his
  company had hired workers who lacked valid Social Security numbers.

  ``We ask them for their documents, and they give us their documents," said
  Bethell, whose company brought workers to Blackstone from Texas and the
  Midwest. ``We're not private eyes."

  Romeo D'Agostino, an owner of D'Agostino Associates Inc. of Newton, which
  had 19 instances of workers with bogus or questionable Social Security
  numbers on public school projects in Littleton and North Easton, said he
  received about a dozen letters from the Social Security Administration last
  year informing him that the agency found various workers' numbers did not
  match any of their records. Occasionally, when a worker's Social Security
  number does not match the name on tax documents, the SSA sends out such
  letters asking the worker to resolve the discrepancy.

  D'Agostino said the law requires him only to pass the letters on to the
  employees, which he did. Some of those workers still are employed by him,
  he said.

  ``I can only do so much," D'Agostino said. ``I follow the letter of the law."

  In a brief tele phone interview, Paul M. Alves, president of Lighthouse
  Masonry of New Bedford, said he knew nothing about undocumented workers at
  his business.

  ``I don't know what you're talking about," he said, and hung up.

  At UMass-Dartmouth, Lighthouse Masonry got a $9.8 million contract to help
  build six dormitories in 2004. Of the 87 workers on the payroll reviewed,
  55 had questionable or bogus Social Security numbers.

  A university spokesman said the school is not equipped to enforce
  immigration laws.

  ``The university concerns itself with getting the job done," said John Hoey
  , a spokesman for UMass-Dartmouth.

  Specialists on both sides of the immigration debate agree the federal
  government has done a dismal job of enforcing immigration laws, and that
  that is why so many undocumented workers -- and the companies that employ
  them -- thrive. The workers are attractive to some construction firms
  because they will typically work for lower wages and are less likely to
  complain to authorities about labor violations.

  An immigration overhaul measure recently passed by the Senate would make it
  mandatory for employers to verify Social Security numbers with Homeland
  Security.

  In interviews, two undocumented immigrants who worked on public
  construction projects said it was easy to obtain the Social Security
  numbers and get on the contractors' payroll.

  An immigrant from Brazil who said he worked from 2001 to 2005 for
  D'Agostino and then Lighthouse Masonry said that he bought his bogus Social
  Security card from a friend of a friend for $80. The 24-year-old, who
  overstayed his visa after it expired in 2001, said his friend encouraged
  him to make up a 9-digit number for the card, so he used part of his
  mother's phone number in Brazil.

  ``You have to remember the number, and that's a number I can remember,"
  said the masonry worker, who lives in Burlington and insisted on anonymity
  to avoid detection by authorities.

  The number he made up belongs to a Quincy woman, according to the Globe
  search .

  He said he felt guilty using the made-up number -- ``I'm a Christian," he
  explained -- but felt he had no choice.

  Federal authorities have stepped up their attempts to ferret out phony
  Social Security numbers over the last few years. Earlier this month,
  Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced proposals designed
  to allow employers to act more quickly on mismatches, but most of those are
  not in place.

  No state in the country mandates that employers substantiate their workers
  are legal, according to the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington,
  D.C. Georgia recently passed a measure that would do so as of July 1, 2007.

  A spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney said it was unsurprising state money
  was used to pay undocumented immigrants.

  ``The governor is not surprised that our current immigration laws are a
  mess," said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. ``We expect employers to
  abide by the laws of the nation, but that is difficult to do when we have a
  lax system of enforcement, and a situation where anyone can acquire a
  forged Social Security card."

  But immigration specialists say public officials simply lack the will to
  take on the problem.

  ``If a newspaper can run the numbers and find out whether they're good, the
  fact that the government isn't doing it is a clear indication of how
  successive administrations have chosen not to enforce the law," said Steven
  A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
  ``The fact that it's so easy to do and we don't require it is absurd."

  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'