Immigration Alert: 'No-Match' Regulations Set To Be Rescinded As DHS Focuses On Strengthening E-Verify

As our prior Alerts have informed you, in 2007 the Social

Security Administration (SSA) submitted proposed regulations that

would increase employers' obligations upon receipt of a

"No-Match" letter (a letter sent by SSA to an employer to

report that an employee's Social Security Number (SSN) does not

match the name provided). Before the new regulations could be

implemented, however, they were blocked by court order in September

2007. On July 8, 2009, Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that the Department would be

rescinding these proposed regulations in favor of strengthening the

existing E-Verify system. (For more information about E-Verify,

please see our prior

Alert, as well as our

video podcast.)

E-Verify is an electronic system administered jointly by the DHS

and the SSA for the verification of employment authorization.

E-Verify provides access to federal databases to help employers

determine the employment eligibility of new hires and the validity

of their SSNs. The 2007 No-Match Rule established procedures that

employers can follow if they receive SSA No-Match letters or

notices from DHS that call into question the work eligibility

information provided by employees. Concerned that these notices

most often informed an employer many months or even a year later

that an employee's name and SSN provided for a W-2 earnings

report did not match SSA records—often due to

typographical errors or unreported name changes—the

Department opted instead to place their resources toward the

E-Verify system. E-Verify addresses...