Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyAbel Pacheco explains how things started getting tough in late December. "I was a truck driver and the economy started slowing down and I was forced to look for a job."
The employer sanctions law kicked in at the beginning of this year, which meant more businesses began using a free Internet-based system called E-Verify.
You might have noticed signs posted around Valley businesses.
It is operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration and aims to allow participating business owners to quickly verify a person's social security number.
Pacheco claims the same system was keeping him from landing a new job.
He applied to eight different companies but no one called him back.
When he finally landed work his employer handed him a document.
"They call me into the office and say they checked on my social and it came up non-confirmed to work," said Pacheco. "My thought is I've become a citizen for eight years and why should I be struggling with the right to work."
Pacheco found out he is required to register his certificate of citizenship with the social security administration, something he says he never knew he had to do.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Pacheco is not alone.
In fact so many naturalized citizens are receiving non-confirmation letters that the E-Verify system is being updated in two phases.
In phase one the system will check a person's social security number against the Department of Homeland Security's records on naturalized citizens.
The second phase will introduce a 1-800 number so people can quickly resolve any issues.
This should take effect this summer.
But for Pacheco, he says the harm has already been done.
As a modest family man living paycheck to paycheck Pacheco says those few weeks with out work forced his family into real financial trouble.
"I have to come home and see my wife in the face and my babies in the face and tell them you know that we're not in the same position we used to be, and its really hurtful, its very anguishing because that's the last thing a father wants to say to his family," explains Pacheco.
E-verify is only supposed to be used after an employer hires someone.
Registering your information with the Social Security Adminstration is your best bet to making sure Pacheco's mismatch doesn't happen to you.
