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How many Social Security numbers have been fraudulently used by noncitizens in the U.S. since 2000?
Executive summary
Available reporting and government documents do not provide a single, reliable cumulative number for how many Social Security numbers (SSNs) have been fraudulently used by noncitizens in the U.S. since 2000; the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 2002 estimated about 100,000 noncitizens obtained SSNs with false documents in calendar year 2000 [1]. Contemporary coverage focuses on program-level counts, investigations, and legal pathways for noncitizens to receive legitimate SSNs rather than a comprehensive tally of fraudulent SSN use since 2000 [2] [3].
1. No single official cumulative tally exists
There is no source among the provided documents that compiles a definitive, cumulative count of SSNs fraudulently used by noncitizens from 2000 through the present; the Congressional Research Service overview and SSA materials discuss fraud investigations, prosecutions, and program totals but not a running total of fraudulent noncitizen SSN uses across multiple years [4] [3]. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and SSA publish and describe investigations and confirmed fraud amounts for specific fiscal years, but those reports do not translate into a single long‑term count of noncitizen SSN fraud cases [3] [5].
2. Historic datapoint: ~100,000 false‑document SSNs in 2000
An SSA OIG congressional testimony from 2002 projected that “almost 100,000 non‑citizens obtained SSNs in calendar year 2000 with false documents,” and that SSA issued roughly 1.2 million SSNs to noncitizens in that year altogether [1]. That testimony provides a concrete historic benchmark, but it covers one calendar year and uses modelling/projection language rather than asserting a precise forensic count [1].
3. Modern debates conflate lawful issuance and fraud
Recent public claims and charts have highlighted increases in the number of noncitizens receiving SSNs through legal processes—such as “Enumeration Beyond Entry”—but reporting by fact‑checkers shows these charts often mix lawful issuance with implications of fraud; PolitiFact and Poynter note that noncitizens can be legally issued SSNs when authorized to work, and that some headline figures have been portrayed as more nefarious or newly revealing than the sources support [2] [6]. In short: higher counts of noncitizen SSN issuance are not synonymous with evidence of widespread fraudulent SSN use [2] [6].
4. SSA and OIG focus on investigations and fiscal measures, not cumulative counts
Congressional and SSA materials emphasize the mechanisms for detecting, investigating, and prosecuting fraud—reporting confirmed fraud dollar amounts in specific fiscal years and discussing dispositions of OIG cases—rather than publishing aggregated counts of how many noncitizens committed SSN fraud since 2000 [4] [3]. For example, CRS reporting cites SSA OIG practices and confirmed fraud figures [4] [3], and SSA’s fraud pages explain how OIG pursues investigations and referrals [5] [7].
5. Legal and enforcement context shapes interpretation
Legal analyses and immigration‑related reporting show that the government prosecutes certain SSN false‑use cases—especially when tied to financial harm or organized schemes—but does not automatically criminalize every instance of a noncitizen using a false SSN in ways that would produce an easy public tally; enforcement priorities, prosecutorial declinations, and civil remedies complicate any attempt to count “fraudulent use” comprehensively [8] [3]. Congressional reporting on legislation and court decisions also signals that prosecutorial outcomes and definitions of offenses vary over time [9].
6. How journalists and fact‑checkers handle modern claims
When high‑profile figures or political actors present aggregated charts or dramatic totals, fact‑checkers like Poynter and PolitiFact have examined the data and emphasized missing context—showing that agency datasets can include legally issued SSNs to noncitizens and that some claims overstate or misinterpret what the numbers mean [2] [6]. That coverage suggests caution in treating headline figures as proof of widespread illegal SSN use by noncitizens without examining raw data definitions and legal pathways [2] [6].
7. What is missing and how to get closer to an answer
Available sources do not provide a verified cumulative count covering 2000–present of SSNs fraudulently used by noncitizens; to approach such a figure, one would need multi‑year OIG case‑level data on confirmed fraudulent SSN issuance or use, plus consistent definitions of “fraudulent use” and accounting for prosecutorial declinations and administrative corrections—data that the provided sources do not assemble [1] [3]. Requesting detailed OIG/SSA case datasets or Freedom of Information Act records would be the next step; current public reporting instead offers episodic counts, program totals, and one historical projection for 2000 [1] [3].
Bottom line: the best concrete data point in the provided reporting is the SSA OIG projection of nearly 100,000 noncitizens obtaining SSNs with false documents in calendar year 2000, but no source in this collection produces a comprehensive total of fraudulent noncitizen SSN use covering 2000 to today [1] [3].