Validity Check of Social Security Cards Set

A pilot program in Texas to enable businesses to verify the Social Security numbers of job-seekers was announced Thursday as part of the Reagan Administration’s implementation of the new immigration law.

Starting Jan. 20, an estimated 70,000 businesses in Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso and Corpus Christi will be able to verify by telephone whether prospective employees have valid Social Security cards, Social Security Commissioner Dorcas R. Hardy said.

The system will enable the Social Security Administration to check prospective employees’ card numbers with earnings records to clear up errors and “allow (Social Security) to determine if this process will be an effective means to provide service to employers and employees” when enforcement of the new law begins in June, Hardy said.

ACLU Questions Plan

The program was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union as not affording sufficient protection to legitimate cardholders whose Social Security numbers might also have been used on forged cards.

“There is no meaningful protection of the due process rights of legitimate lawful resident aliens or U.S. citizens who somehow may be bumped from the system because they are using a number which is also shared by several other people,” said Wade Henderson, associate director of the ACLU’s Washington office.

The system “will not tell which individual holding the card is the rightful owner,” he said.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said the verification system will help employers avoid the “great peril” of criminal sanctions for hiring illegal aliens contained in the new immigration law.

Bias Prohibited

The new law imposes civil penalties ranging from $250 to $2,000 for each illegal alien hired, but it prohibits employers from discriminating against legal aliens because of their citizenship status.

“This is a service for people who want some special assurance that they are not violating the law,” Gramm said, adding that he would propose to make it permanent nationwide if the six-month experiment is successful.

Gramm said the INS would regard a Social Security verification inquiry as a good-faith attempt to comply with the law when the agency decides whether to prosecute an employer for hiring an illegal alien.

A job-seeker whose Social Security card is not validated will be advised to resolve the discrepancy with local Social Security officials, Hardy said.