Summary

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) established an employment verification system to prevent employers from hiring aliens who are unauthorized to work. Yet large numbers of unauthorized aliens are obtaining jobs through the widespread use of fraudulent documents. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is trying to reduce the number of documents that can be used for employment verification and improve the integrity of the documents that it issues. However, these efforts will not substantially affect unauthorized aliens' ability to obtain employment. The most common counterfeited documents will still remain on the list of acceptable documents. In addition, counterfeiters may be able to manufacture "passable versions" of even the most secure INS documents, undermining employer confidence in their authenticity. Providing a more secure Social Security card to all current number holders could cost as much as $9.2 billion. Alternatives that could reduce the cost require legislative action. The steps being considered to improve document security could make it more difficult for an unauthorized alien to obtain employment, but the employment verification process can still be circumvented or easily thwarted by the use of widely available fraudulent documents.

GAO noted that: (1) significant numbers of aliens unauthorized to work in the United States have used fraudulent documents to circumvent the employment verification process designed to prevent employers from hiring them; (2) the Immigration and Naturalization Service has taken steps to reduce the number of documents that could be used to verify employment eligibility and to improve the security features in its work authorization documents; (3) however, opportunities still exist for unauthorized aliens to circumvent the employment verification process and obtain employment; (4) in 1997, the Social Security Administration estimated the cost of producing and issuing a counterfeit-resistant Social Security card that could be used to establish employment eligibility to all 277 million cardholders ranged from $3.9 billion to $9.2 billion, depending on which types of security features and data were incorporated into the card; and (5) while alternatives exist that could reduce these costs, these options require legislative action to move forward.