Myth or Fact? Will Social Security go to Illegal Aliens?

The Bush Administration is working on a plan that would put thousands of Mexicans onto Social Security and send hundreds of millions in benefits south of the border.  According to a story appearing in The Washington Post, an internal memo from the Social Security Administration said the agreement “is expected to move forward at an accelerated pace, with the support of both governments, and could be in force by October 2003.”

The agreement is one of a series of “totalization” agreements.  The U.S. has such agreements with 20 other governments, negotiated since the late 1970s.  They allow workers to “totalize” the number of years they have worked in both countries to meet the minimum years required to qualify for benefits under one of the systems.  Until now, the cost to the United States has been relatively small.  The annual cost of all 20 existing accords is about $183 million. 

The new Mexican agreement could cover an estimated 162,000 new beneficiaries in the first five years and could cost $720 million a year according to U.S. and Mexican government statistics.  But some policy experts dispute those figures. 

According to Steven A. Camorata, Director of Research at the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies, if the new beneficiaries in Mexico received payments equal to the average $8,100 benefit that Mexican-born retirees in the U.S. now receive, the total could surpass $1 billion a year.  Even more disturbing, the Mexican government is pressing for benefits to be “adjusted upward” for legal Mexican workers who worked in the U.S. for some time illegally and paid into the U.S. Social Security system using a false Social Security number.  This would mean a Mexican worker who paid into Social Security using an illegal Social Security number would still be allowed to count those earnings towards a starting benefit, and would likely make it easier for that person both to qualify for benefits and to qualify for a higher starting benefit.
If that happens, an editorial appearing in the Washington Times pegged the cost to the Social Security Trust Fund to as much as $345 billion over the next 20 years.

The House Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to provide Congress with information on the possible effects of such a U.S.-Mexico agreement.  “I want to make sure that any totalization agreement with Mexico does not drain tens or hundreds of billions of dollars out of the Social Security Trust Funds at the same time we are fighting to keep the fund solvent,” says House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI).  “I am requesting the GAO provide what we do not have now—an accurate price tag.  I especially want to make sure that the money that is taken out of the Trust Funds as part of any agreement does not benefit aliens working illegally in the U.S. and will not be used to pay fraudulent disability claims.”

But Congressman Sensenbrenner concedes the difficulty in doing this.  He notes, “unfortunately, weak enforcement of immigration laws has led to the INS's recent estimate of seven million illegal aliens residing in this country.  That fact, combined with reported wide-spread fraud by illegal workers using Social Security numbers belonging to others and ‘not for employment’ numbers makes it critical that the Social Security Administration have an accurate basis for supporting totalization with Mexico.”  

TSCL supports the GAO study and believes that such an agreement should not be rushed into without a full, open debate—and with the public having full access to the information about such a policy. 
 
Sources:  “U.S. Social Security May Reach Mexico,” Jonathan Weisman, The Washington Post, December 19, 2002.  “Siphoning Off Social Security,” Joel Mowbray, The Washington Times, January 9, 2003.  “Lead Congressional Committees Request GAO Inquiry into Potential Social Security ‘Totalization’ Agreement With Mexico,” House Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees, February 24, 2003.

June 2003

Legal Statement  |  Contact Us
Copyright © 2007 The Senior Citizens League  |  703-548-5568  |  909 N. Washington St. #300, Alexandria, VA 22314
All Rights Reserved