Cracks in our Social Security and immigration systems will mean that many of those granted administrative amnesty under President Obama’s executive enforcement of the DREAM Act will effectively be legal residents even though the clear language of the mandate says that they will be granted a work visa for two years.

That’s because along with the work visa, all the new DREAMers will be eligible for a permanent and fully functioning Social Security Number. With a social security number, one can get credit, a driver’s license in most states, and be eligible to work legally. While DREAMers will be identified clearly in their social security cards, many employers don’t require actually showing the card for identification purposes during the employment screening process.

Center for Immigration Studies policy analyst Jessica Vaughan said that in the absence of having a physical Social Security Card, it requires proactive verification on the part of most human resources department in order to identify DREAMers. In the past, most HR Departments were unlikely to do proactive investigation when presented with a legal and fully functional Social Security Number.