The Times has a piece about the practice of borrowing Social Security numbers from people who are out of the country. I hadn't encountered this kind of arrangement before (I used to work as a claims rep for SSA), probably either a testament to its success or a good indication that it's a recent development. What I saw much more of was SSNs taken from the dead, who would then appear to be earning income in the database. I don't know if these numbers were simply picked at random, or if the dead were specifically chosen because they'd be less likely to notice, but it's not as if SSA was actively investigating this, as the article notes with a bit of a scandalized cluck.
But there's no question in my mind that Social Security has exactly the right policy as regards these issues. Social Security is probably the premier social service agency in the country, and if millions people are working in the United States illegally, many of those will need social services. An investigative, combative Social Security office would scare people away from seeking those services when they need them -- not just from SSA, which might not be able to help illegal workers in the first place, but also from other social service agencies with broader missions.
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