Email This to a Friend
Social Security Fraud in the Classroom
A Dallas scandal takes corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement to a new level.
The district has, for several years, been issuing fake Social Security numbers to foreign citizens — mostly teachers brought in on visas to teach bilingual classes. The idea was to cut through red tape and get these teachers on the payroll more quickly. The human resources department detected the practice last summer and discontinued the practice. District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa claims he didn’t catch wind of it until September when he received a report produced by an internal investigation. The inquiry started after district officials got a tip from someone at the Texas Education Agency, which is essentially the state education department.
According to the report, the bogus Social Security numbers were issued as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process. They were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until the employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced. In many cases, that didn’t happen.
Why would foreign employees do with two Social Security numbers — one fake, one real? Simple. They keep one and sell one. There’s a big international market for U.S. Social Security numbers. The customers are usually illegal immigrants, looking for a way in the United States once they arrive.
The investigation found no proof that the fake numbers were provided to the Teacher Retirement System, Internal Revenue Service, or Social Security Administration. But when investigators reviewed personnel files, they learned that the fake numbers were entered on forms issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS. The forms don’t leave the district, but they are available to those federal agencies when requested.
District officials say they don’t know how many false numbers were issued. But the number could easily go into the thousands. It’s no wonder that both district officials and immigration lawyers have, in local media interviews, labeled the episode a “mess.”
It is that — and more. Whoever is responsible for this elaborate act of fraud violated any number of federal laws. The penalties include fines and prison time.
Fine. They deserve it. But don’t miss the big picture. At first glance, many people will jump to the conclusion that the district used the fake numbers to hire illegal immigrants. But if the employees had visas, they weren’t illegal — even if they later committed an illegal act by selling a Social Security number.
The real issue isn’t sexy, but it is terribly important. Some crafty individuals found yet another way to game the Social Security system — a practice in which, I suspect, employees and employers across America engage every day. That is what we need to crack down on. And until we do, we can’t get serious about immigration reform or homeland security because we won’t know who is coming or going.
<- Prev Page 2 of 2
Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist, a frequent lecturer, and a regular contributor to CNN.com.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
17 Comments
1. Craig:“…that could result in fines and prison time for multiple parties.”
Do you really believe that? Let’s HOPE SO. But the reality is….somehow the ACLU will stick their nose in this..and defend the indefensible. Everyone will get a slap on the wrist, keep their job, and in our sick society- get a promotion.
Nov 20, 2008 - 4:52 am 2. Toad:The DISD is one of the main reasons I’ve come to despise the very concept of school boards.
Nov 20, 2008 - 5:52 am 3. Roger Godby:It’s defenders state that it is a democratic means to insure good education, However if you grab ten people off the street I doubt if any of them could name who represented their district and who the “hired school superintendent was. Also since the board members are elected by indivual district instead of at large, it is real easy for a crook, ideologe, or combination to run for the office. It takes only a few people and a relative small amount of money to get on the board.
The consolodated school district was supposed to enable the pooling of assets. it just put the assets in a more convenient place to be plundered by anonymous officials.
I’d prefer a school Czar to be elected during every presidential election. Then when the schools sucked we’d at least have the pleasure of putting someone out of office and knowing who to bitch too. Now as for teachers unions, I’d treat them the same way as traffic controllers. If you can’t perform then you have no business in the high stress job of teaching, you have no business adding to the load that is already on all the others and screwing over the students and taxpayers.
Ah, they’re public school teachers. They can’t really be fired. My bet is the teachers’ union coupled with Obama’s promise to aid education and IT means the busted teachers will teach from their cells, live chat, drawing full pay + prison pay. They’ll save on housing costs, too.
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:39 am 4. TexEd:This constant criticism of the DISD is racial profiling and is racist. Other inner city school systems are as badly managed as the DISD yet you don’t hear constant stories of incompetence and criminal activity about them!
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:41 am 5. David Thomson:“My bet is the teachers’ union coupled with Obama’s promise to aid education and IT means the busted teachers will teach from their cells, live chat, drawing full pay + prison pay.”
This could be especially true if they are minorities. We are subtly becoming a nation where white people often have a much greater chance of being sent to prison. Reverse racism has perhaps even become the norm in white collar crime. This may even more likely in large cities where government employed minorities dominate the juries.
“This constant criticism of the DISD is racial profiling and is racist.”
Did anyone actually believe that the election of Barack Obama will get us “past race?” Well, the exact opposite thing is occurring. Employing the race card by TexEd and others will become the normal state of affairs.
Nov 20, 2008 - 7:58 am 6. Jack:Okay, TexEd,
criticism of DISD is racist. I believe you. But as some one living in South Norwalk, CT, could you please tell me why it is racist?
Has there been discrimination? You don’t mention that. Have there been charges of racism laid by some victim of discrimination? You don’t mention that.
Your reasoning relies on the idea that if the author doesn’t address bad behavior in ALL inner city schools (at the same time) then focusing on DISD is racist. And this makes no sense; you can only put so much into one article. And why do you make the charge that many other inner city school boards are badly run without citing at least one example?
Furthermore, and only because of your comment, I am getting the idea that most of the officials of the DISD are black or hispanic, even though this is not mentioned in the article. Are you suggesting that when a black school administrator spends money meant for black students for his/her own personal use, and gets caught at it, that holding that administrator accountable is some how evidence of racism?
Or is this a continuation of the soft bigotry of low expectations? Maybe it is a bit much to expect school boards to be corruption free.
Give me a break.
Nov 20, 2008 - 8:06 am 7. Kevin:Ahhh, yes, all the fun that is the DISD. How I remember them fondly. Thank God I no longer live in the region. DISD is a joke. I thought HISD(Houston) was bad, then I moved to the DFW area and found out that DISD is the very definition of bad. The board is incapable of making any kind of intelligent move. The minute an idea is put forth and it doesn’t include an increase in minority spending or threatens the union, it is racist. The school district I live in now is bad enough, but DISD still holds the prize for ineptness. And if you think that is racist, so be it. I don’t care. While you hold yourself back, I will continue to improve myself and rise.
Nov 20, 2008 - 9:41 am 8. WJ:I have rarely agreed with Mr. Navarette in his prior postings on PJM. On this one I do, and just in case he reads the comments, wanted to acknowledge that to him.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:18 am 9. JGAlt, MD:Oh, lets not forget that the DISD was hiring ‘bilingual’ teachers….who were completely unable to speak english…..
Just what they were expected to do remains unclear
Nov 20, 2008 - 12:12 pm 10. Ms Attitude:The NEA or AFT will run to their aide. Nobody will get in trouble…wow, you just gotta love them Unions!!!
Nov 20, 2008 - 12:16 pm 11. frank:DISD….social security numbers…….HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HEE HEE HEE HAW. Can you say go directly to jail & do not pass go!!!
Nov 20, 2008 - 4:27 pm 12. thegr8_1:The way this country is going to the crapper the people behind this will be running the Social Security Administration before long.
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:45 pm 13. NahnCee:So who, exactly, is going to go to jail? The school administrators or the illegal teachers? Shouldn’t the illegal teachers be taken to the border, kicked off the bus and told never to show their scurvy faces in America again, and *then* the Real American Texan school adminstrators go to jail?
BTW, I wonder how many of the Texan school administrators have first names like Jose and last names like Aguilar.
Nov 22, 2008 - 5:26 pm 14. Road2Broadkill:It is important to remember that only Hinojosa has the authority to launch an investigation so the idea that he didn’t know about it until AFTER the report came in is absolute HOGWASH. As for the accusation of racial profiling…we keep hearing about DISD because they just hoodwinked the taxpayers into backing a billion dollar plus bond package and unleashing the bad news AFTER the fact. That, TEXED, isn’t racial profiling. It is a city tired of being defrauded by people of ALL races and ethnicities.
Nov 24, 2008 - 8:47 am 15. firstspouse:One fact that was left out of the article is that DISD was notified by the TEA in 2004 that the practice of issuing “placer SS numbers” was illegal and that DISD should immediately desist from doing so. And yet the practice continued until summer of 2008 with the supt “not knowing” about the situation. Right.
Nov 24, 2008 - 1:50 pm 16. DrizztDo'Urden:In addition, these false SS were issued to teachers who were in the county on visas so while the teachers were not here illegally, there is knowledge that some of the teachers did indeed try to use the false SS numbers.
We are not even discussing the whole practice of hiring teachers from abroad who cannot speak English clearly so that they have to be instructed in how to teach in English…and how to speak English so that it can be understood.
And Dallas is not a unionized district in the sense that those of you from unionized areas of the country would recognize as such. But it is still a joke.
I would like to know why so much effort has gone into finger-pointing and the blame game and so little has gone into showing what the district has done to correct the problem since September. The truth of the matter is that there are less than ten people in the district now who have not had their social security numbers verified and the ones remaining have had their pay checks held until they could provide proof of a valid social security number. Navarrette points out that the number of people with false numbers could have been in the thousands, but due to the initiative and effort put forth by the HD Connect department there are only a handful of individuals still using invalid numbers. HD Connect has also worked very closely with the State since September to insure that the social security numbers are verified and reported correctly for new hires over the past five years and will continue to do so going forward. While attention should be called and illegal action should be punished it is only fair to commend those who have worked to correct the issue.
Nov 25, 2008 - 9:27 am 17. youzoe:yeah this is sad lol
Apr 9, 2009 - 4:29 am