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AFL-CIO v. Chertoff

Last Update: October 7, 2009

What's at Stake

AFL-CIO, ACLU and National Immigration Law Center Challenge New Homeland Security Rule

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County along with other local labor movements filed a lawsuit charging that a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule will threaten jobs of U.S. citizens and other legally authorized workers simply because of errors in the government’s inaccurate social security earnings databases. The rule violates workers’ rights and imposes burdensome obligations on employers who receive Social Security Administration (SSA) “no-match” letters that inform an employer of alleged discrepancies between employee records and the SSA database.

Under the new rule, many U.S. citizens and legally authorized workers could be required to be terminated if their erroneous SSA records are not fixed within 90 days of an SSA “no-match” letter being sent to an employer.

ACLU staff attorney Jennifer Chang blogs about the groups representing both employers and employees clamoring to stop this new Homeland Security rule >>

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