Ok, I’m wondering what happens WHEN you get your credit report and find out that someone else is using your SS number.

The answer is that you report it to SS, and they take about a year to get it straightened out, after you spend your time going down to the local office and documenting who you are. No law enforcement gets involved, and all you get is your SS acount back, eventually. Been there, done that.
No crooks get apprehended, no illegals(or whomever) get deported. All you get is eventual personal satisfaction; nothing changes in the overall situation.

I think the raids are the right thing to do, since BP let them get in originally. A well-enforced border is the best solution, since after-the-fact always costs more and takes more time.

If Swift is found to have knowingly hired illegal immigrants, then they need to be held accountable for that. But outside of evidence suggesting that, I think the way the government handled this was just fine.

Captain Ed is reporting that Swift is legal because they followed the screening law.

However this does put them in a huge problem. They've got product to deliver and no workers.

If the government had a GOOD system at keeping illegal workers out they never would have hired illegals in the first place. They wouldn't be short now.

It would have been illegal for them NOT to hire these workers. Now they're stuck.

You know, it would have been perfectly legal for Swift to have performed a background check on these workers to determine that they are in fact who they say they are. Given that they're often handing their workers a razor sharp butcher knife for their work, I even think it might be a decent idea.

As someone who works in the background check industry I can tell you that this would have stopped all of these illegals from getting hired. Unfortunately, most businesses don't want to go through the expense. It can cost about $100 or so to get a fairly thorough background (some companies offer them for much less, but you get what you pay for).

I can't blame Swift for deciding not to run backgrounds on laborerers who likely have a high turn-over rate. And until there's some evidence that Swift was actively recruiting illegals I'm not willing to condemn them for it.

Not Swift specifically, but this article definitely claims that meatpackers and agribusiness are recruiting outside the United States, and provides studies to back it up.
http://www.jsri.msu.edu/RandS/research/wps/wp59.p…

I think the INS would be foolish not to look for such links in this case.

You're right about the cost, but let's face facts; escaping one INS raid or workplace violence event pays for those background checks pretty quickly, I'd think.

I suppose that a background check would have found this

Absolutely. The first thing you do with a pre-employment check (after getting the employee to sign off on authorization) is to run their SSN to get an address history. That address history is going to come up with a name associated with the SSN. If it is someone else's name, there's a problem.

Once that puts a red flag up, you can notify the employer and dig deeper. A pretty painless and simple process, really.

But I guess verifying that they are is a valid business reason to research them.

That's one of our selling points when we approach a company about backgrounds.

I thought this was a Blog, not a sales tool for Port Investigations.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is seeking an immediate injunction in federal court, today, on behalf of workers employed by Swift and Company packing operations in Texas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.

The workers were subjected to a wholesale round up, including detention, by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

What does this union think the Federal Court is going to tell ICE to stop doing what they are supposed to do, it's their job. What part of you stole someone's identity to work in a factory illegally. Identity theft is a serious crime. More Madness.

This is so much fun let's go after the Jews, Japanese next. Then Big companies can go to China and see how cheap they can find workers for.

Of course, if the Border Patrol was doing its job, very little would be necessary in terms of document checking and the like. An employer could be confident that anyone showing up for employment was here legally. Duh.

Are Jews and Japanese illegally in this country, using stolen identities to get jobs and government entitlements?

No they are not they came here legally, they went through the process. That is what is the point is. If your here legally you have a right to be here.

It's gotta be damned tough for the border patrol to do their job when they get crapped on for doing it.

Au contraire! I know how swamped they are, because they don't have the money or the directive to do their job. It stands to reason that money spent there would be less than it costs us to do it after the fact, plus all the cost of having the illegals here until they are caught. Once again, duh! Either way, it's going to cost us, so why not get the most bang for our buck, and spend it on border enforcement.

Robert I agree 100 percent with that statement. I wonder how much funding border enforcement will get with the dems in charge? American are concerned about this subject, lets see if our leaders are.

So, lets get this back on topic. Union leaders are supporting criminals, giving them protection from law enforcement. That entails breaking multiple Federal and State laws. Time to raid their offices and arrest these criminals also.

Hey look – I don't blame Juan for wanting to come to the USA and work, I blame my government for allowing him to come here. However, I want Juan to get the hell out, and if he won't go, then I really couldn't give a damn what happenes to him. Illegal aliens are criminals as evidenced by the fact that they are here "illegally." No amnesty – they must go back one way or another.

Lads & lassies, I had a thought last night. Given that these guys were caught because they'd "borrowed" someone else's identity, perhaps the best thing we all can do to stop illegal immigration is to order a copy of our credit reports and see if there is anything interesting. If credit is issued that we haven't asked for, or if there is employment we haven't done, we simply contact the credit issuer/employer and ask them to terminate that credit/employment agreement. We can also provide that information to the INS.

Hey, if they're overworked, there's nothing like a bit of help from fellow citizens, right?

Robert: Great idea, as long as we get paid for doing their work.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, R*108, no? Never mind that if the price of illegal immigration is hundreds of billions of dollars in welfare, education, medical care, incarceration, and so on, then helping to send an illegal or too back home will pay rather handsomely.

Rob, you did mean to say that most states DO allow one report per year, right?

Ok, I'm wondering what happens WHEN you get your credit report and find out that someone else is using your SS number.

You report it to the cops. Well the local guys won't have jurisdiction as the other party is likely in another state.

So I report it to the FBI? INS?

I think it will get put on the ignore pile.

Frankly the latest raid is a piece of low hanging fruit. I'm glad they did it but I still wonder if they are going to do much more than this.

When some people (probably not illegals) got hold of my credit, what I did was call all of the credit providers and inform them first of all that you're not the one who asked for it. It takes a signed letter to eliminate your liability, that's all–but if you're lying, of course, they can come after you.

I'll grant R*108's point that it's infuriating for government to waste our money and not even do their job. He's also correct to note that most of the time, it won't do much good.

That said, however, every once in a while, an employer or landlord is going to fire/evict someone who came to them with false information. Every once in a while, a lender is going to terminate lending to someone who lied to get credit. This creates the paper trail that is needed to make it easy for INS to evict someone from the country.

And again, it doesn't do a bit of good if they won't do their job, but it is a start.

Bush is one of the biggest offenders in this area.

This is just wrong; I'm no fan of the President in this area, but the Dems have been much worse, and it will really get bad with the Dem congress. They want the ignorant socialist voters and union members. It's a double whammy.