10/17/2007

A U.S. district court in Northern California issued a temporary restraining order recently, in the case of AFL-CIO et al v. Michael Chertoff et al, which is a lawsuit against the controversial "no-match" letter regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A temporary restraining order prevents the DHS from implementing the regulation, pending a hearing on the matter.

The plaintiffs in this case are the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) together with other professional organizations. The defendants are DHS, the Social Security Administration (SSA), and their agents. The federal court determined that the plaintiffs "raised serious questions as to whether the new Department of Homeland Security rule is inconsistent with statute and beyond the statutory authority of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration." 

Therefore, the court issued an order, temporarily preventing the defendants from implementing the regulation. The court further ordered them to appear at a hearing, to explain their position in favor of the regulation. It is expected that the defendants will vigorously support their position.

The "no-match" regulation describes the legal obligations of an employer who receives a no-match letter from the SSA, or a letter from the DHS, indicating that there is a discrepancy between the agency's records and I-9 employment eligibility documents. Such a discrepancy, or no-match, in records could be caused by the use of a false identity for employment authorization documents. There are other possible reasons, however, that information may not match and the generation of a letter could be prompted.