Employers beware: The federal government wants to crack down harder on bosses who hire workers with false Social Security cards.

As Congress and others debate immigration policy, criticism has been sharp against the government for lax oversight of employers who hire illegal immigrants. Employer crackdowns have been moving from civil fines to criminal prosecution, and criminal prosecutions of individuals have more than doubled over the last fiscal year.

Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a voluntary program of "best practices" for employers to curb hiring of illegal immigrants.

"We are bringing a growing number of criminal prosecutions against unscrupulous employers, " Mr. Chertoff said.

"If the government is going to fully address the problem of illegal alien employment, it must partner with employers, educate them and provide them with the tools they need to develop a stable, legal workforce."

The new Homeland Security program also calls for employers to pay special attention to Social Security numbers and "no-match" letters that are issued when new hires provide numbers that don't match the government's database.

On June 14, Homeland Security issued a notice of a proposed rule change that would bring tougher scrutiny of employers that have been warned about no-matches on Social Security numbers. Comments will be taken until Aug. 14.

The stronger stance comes as Congress conducts summer hearings on overhauling the nation's immigration laws. At 11 a.m. Monday, a congressional hearing led by Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, will be held at Plano City Hall. Invited witnesses will testify on employee verification.

New verification measures are in both an enforcement-only House bill and the Senate bill, which calls for enforcement and a legalization program.

Regardless of action on Capitol Hill, Homeland Security is getting tougher out in the field.

In Dallas, dozens of human resource specialists gathered this month to get guidance from attorney David C. Whitlock of Fisher & Philips on changes in enforcement strategy by Homeland Security.

He warned that employers had better take heed and do more careful document checking, especially of Social Security cards that prompt inquiries from the government.

Mr. Whitlock was frank about the need for employers to be more vigilant:

"We don't have 12 million undocumented workers in this country," he said. "We have 12 million falsely documented workers in this country. Why? Because you let them work. ... And you don't want to get rid of them because they are some of your best workers."

Mr. Whitlock outlined a plan that included careful attention to no-match letters and audits of existing employment eligibility forms, known as I-9s.

Such forms were required after the last large overhaul of immigration law in 1986. That law made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire persons without proper work authorization.

Victor Zepeda, chairman of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said verifying the authenticity of documents has become a major headache for many employers. At the same time, they must comply with anti-discrimination laws in a region with a large Latino workforce.

"My biggest issue as an employer is documentation," said Mr. Zepeda, an engineer. "I don't want to be the policing authority."

For 2005, the Social Security Administration sent out about 128,000 no-match letters to employers and about 8 million no-match letters to employees.

Under the proposed Homeland Security rule, employers have 14 days to check records and report back necessary corrections to the Social Security Administration or Homeland Security. If records can't be corrected within 14 days, the worker must be instructed to go to the local SSA or Homeland Security office to try to fix the problem. A series of processes should follow, according to the proposed rule.

Attorneys note that it was the no-match letter that played a key role in triggering the IFCO Systems raids in April across the nation, including Dallas.

IFCO, a division of a Dutch company, was warned more than a dozen times in 2004 and 2005 by the government that more than 1,000 employee Social Security numbers didn't match agency records. Federal officials have said that 53 percent of workers on IFCO's 2005 payroll had Social Security numbers that didn't match records.

Within two months of the raids, Homeland Security made the proposed rule change on no-match letters.

The federal government is getting tougher in other ways. It now seldom uses civil fines against employers and opts more for criminal prosecutions. Homeland Security officials have often said that the civil sanctions were largely tantamount to a slap on the wrist.

In the IFCO case, authorities used criminal prosecution. It was the largest immigration workplace raid in U.S. history and covered 26 states. In the Dallas area, 93 workers were taken away.

This week, a federal grand jury criminally indicted a temporary labor service company operating from Ohio and Tennessee. Once again, the no-match letters played a role in the investigation, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Like Mr. Whitlock, other lawyers said employers need to be more vigilant.

"This is no longer something to be taken lightly," said Elise A. Healy, an immigration attorney at Epstein, Becker & Green in Dallas.

Government officials view how an employer deals with company "mismatch" letters as an indicator of how seriously they take their responsibility to not knowingly hire illegal workers, she said.

E-mail dsolis@dallasnews.com

Under the voluntary Homeland Security program, employers would:

•Use the federal Basic Pilot system to verify worker Social Security numbers.

•Order annual audits of employee I-9 forms by an external auditing firm or a trained employee not involved in the I-9 process.

•Create a protocol for responding to so-called "no-match" letters received from the Social Security Administration.

SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security

Topic: Immigration – Enforcing Employee Work Eligibility Laws and Implementing a Stronger Employment Verification System

When: 11 a.m. Monday

Where: Plano City Hall, 1520 Avenue K

Sponsor: Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, chairman of the House subcommittee on employer-employee relations

Invited witnesses:

•John Chakwin, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dallas

•Jon L. Luther, chief executive of Dunkin Donuts, Canton, Mass.

•Abel Martinez, vice president of partner-relations, risk management and compliance, H-E-B Grocery Co., San Antonio