Match Game The crackdown on hiring illegal workers stalls.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security is trying to add teeth to the no-match letters that started going out to employers in 1994 and have been widely ignored. Under proposed rules, entrepreneurs would have to fire workers whose Social Security numbers don't match their names and other information or risk paying fines or going to jail. However, a federal judge's ruling has blocked implementation of the rules indefinitely.

In the past, undocumented workers asked by employers to supply Social Security numbers sometimes made up numbers or used other people's. When Social Security notified workers and companies via no-match letters, they could--and often did--simply not respond.