Court temporarily blocks DHS's tightening of SSN mismatch rules

On 15 August 2007, a DHS Final Rule regarding employment of illegal aliens was published in the Federal Register and was scheduled to become effective on 14 September 2007. Under the Rule, plans were for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to include a Special Notice from the DHS as part of the standard mismatch correspondence SSA conducts with employers. Annually, the SSA sends no-match letters to employers whose W-2 wage reports result in more than ten mismatches if those mismatches constitute at least one-half a percent of all W-2 forms filed by that employer in one year. In other words, statistically, the burden of mismatch notices falls more heavily on smaller employers, where 10-25 mismatches are likely to represent a higher proportion of the workforce.

Normally, SSA sends its no-match letters in early summer. In anticipation of DHS finalizing the Rule, SSA held back sending letters relating to 2006 W-2