It happened in 2001. I was a new business owner and I unknowingly hired an illegal alien. His name was Jose and he was a very good and hardworking employee. He presented me a picture ID and a social security card that looked very legit to me. There was no system or requirement in place for business owners to verify social security numbers. The only requirement was to make a copy of the cards, fill out an I9 and send it in and put the copies in their employee file. I did what was required and Jose worked for me for 2 years. During these 2 years, I was doing everything I was supposed to by taking taxes out of his checks and also paying 50 % of his social security and Medicare and 100% of his unemployment taxes. I was sending all the required documents to the IRS and issued him a W2 at year end. To my surprise, I received a call from the IRS one day, telling me that the social security number that I had been reporting for Jose did not match the name for Jose. They asked me if I had a copy of his cards in his employee file and if I could fax it to them so I did that immediately. I told them that what I had looked legit to me and that I was shocked to hear this and was not aware that it was not real. I asked them if I was in any trouble for this and they told me no and to just fax them what I had. I immediately called Jose to my office and told him about the call that I just got. I asked him where he got his Social Security card and ID and he told me that he had bought it from a guy in Dallas. I told him that now that I know all this he could no longer work for me so I fired him. He understood and left immediately. This all happened very fast. After Jose left I started thinking and asking myself these questions. Why did it take them 2 years to finally notice this? What happens to all the money that both Jose and myself had been paying towards his taxes? Will Jose ever be able to collect his social security benefits or Medicare benefits? Will he be able to draw any unemployment that I had been paying for? The answer is no to all these questions. It’s like a huge insurance scam by collecting premiums for something that they will never have to pay any benefits on. They don’t want it to end. Yet they have the nerve to tell us that Social Security is running out of money. Did ICE show up at my business to deport Jose? No. Was there any investigation started to go after this guy in Dallas that sold Jose the fake documents? No. After I faxed them what I had, I never heard anything else from anyone. Jose was let free to carry on and get another job. I did this unknowingly and was paying Jose the same wages that my American employees were making. However, there are so many employers that know exactly what they’re doing and know they can get away with it and are not paying the illegals proper wages because these illegals will accept lower wages and don’t seem to understand or care that our government is making them pay into benefits that they will never collect. This was such a big awakening for me and until business owners have to be held accountable and verify each employee before hiring them, this will continue.