CARD PLAN COULD BACKFIRE, EXPERT SAYS.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Rep. David Dreier's plan to curb illegal immigration by revamping Social Security cards could lead to an increase in identity theft, a privacy expert testified Thursday.

Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said he supports creating counterfeit-proof Social Security cards, but warned that Dreier's plan is vulnerable to abuse.

``This will come at a cost of privacy,'' Rotenberg told a House Judiciary Committee panel on immigration.

Dreier's proposal would require that all new Social Security cards be plastic and include an encrypted, machine-readable magnetic strip - much like a credit card - containing the holder's name and citizenship or residency status.

When hiring new workers, employers would have to call a toll-free number or run the Social Security card through a scanner that would alert them whether the potential new hire is eligible to work in the U.S.

An employer who hired an illegal immigrant or failed to comply with the Social Security card check could face up to five years in jail and $50,000 in fines.

National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner predicted the legislation could lead to a dramatic decline in illegal immigration. In the past, he has estimated a drop of 98 percent.

``It would do more to secure our borders than millions of metric tons of concrete to pour walls around our borders or millions of border patrol agents linked arm in arm,'' Bonner said.

Los Angeles County Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich also support the bill. In a letter to Congress, they said the measure ``will make it virtually impossible for anyone here illegally to find work.''

Dreier, for his part, insisted that the Social Security cards would not become a de-facto national identification card. The cards would be marked with a disclaimer that they could not be used for the purpose of identification, and would be harder to counterfeit than current ones, he said.

``We know that immigration reform and border security issues have become among the most divisive we have faced,'' he said. ``We really have not expended a great deal of effort on the demand side, which is really so key.''

Democrats said they were concerned about the potential for abuse. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the leading Democrat on the committee, questioned why the Department of Homeland Security should maintain the central database of every American's citizenship status and work eligibility information.

He and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, also pointed to Rotenberg's assertions that putting more personal information on a machine-readable card makes it more accessible to those who shouldn't have it.

Rotenberg suggested the bill be revised to include stiff penalties for government officials or anyone else who misuses the database. Dreier told the committee he did not object to those sanctions.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com