As Washington still seeks to allocate blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, one of the emerging candidates is the questionable Social Security card and the ability of undocumented immigrants to get it and use it. See, e.g., Robert Pear, “Foreigners Fraudulently Get Social Security Cards,” The New York Times, May 20, 2002 (citing a report by the inspector general of the Social Security Administration (SSA) that 100,000 Social Security numbers (SSNs) were wrongly issued to noncitizens in 2000).
Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers managed to get Social Security cards and undoubtedly used them to secure credit cards and to open bank accounts in the United States. Fraudulent Social Security cards are also a problem for the SSA. The steps that agency is taking to address the problem, as discussed below, can place some employers in a tight bind and will ultimately spell trouble both for the thousands of workers who carry Social Security cards unlawfully and for some whose cards are valid.[1]�
