So, with all this fence building and papers-asking-for, I worked about 25 years on a SSN that identified me as a Mexican national not authorized to work in the USA. Anybody can get a SSN, regardless of immigration status. But the records include status, and mine said "Mexican" and didn't say "OK to work".

I've been getting social security reports showing how much work I have on record. It's considerable.

You'd think, at some point, they could have contacted one of my several employers and objected to their openly hiring an illegal - not just undocumented but documented in the negative - alien. No new laws, no new hardware, no new demands for papers. Just doing the damned job.

It was a paperwork error. I am a dual-national Mexican American, legal to work in either country.