Q: How can illegal immigrants legally receive Social Security? They don’t even pay payroll taxes! A: To receive benefits from Social Security, immigrants must first become legally authorized to work in the United States or a receive a work-authorized Social Security number. That would happen under "guest worker" immigration legislation that’s moving in Congress, or the pending U.S./Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. Once immigrants have a valid work-authorized Social Security number, both legally and illegally earned wages may be used to determine benefit eligibility.
Twenty years ago in 1986, Congress passed legislation that makes it illegal for an employer to knowingly hire anyone not legally permitted to work in the United States. Nevertheless, millions of illegal immigrants can and do work here. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the government has been lax in enforcing penalties. Employers are required by law to ask new hires for a Social Security number, but they are not required to verify the legitimacy of the number, or work authorization status. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service does not have a compliance program for penalizing employers who break the law.
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According to an analysis by Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Charlotte Observer, one internal study found that a restaurant company had submitted 4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers. One child’s Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states. When this happens, the Social Security Administration places the earnings reports for names and Social Security numbers on W-2s that don’t match Social Security’s records, in an "earnings suspense file." If an immigrant later gets a valid Social Security number and has maintained good records, he or she can have Social Security electronically match those earnings records from the earnings suspense files. The work credits while illegal will be reinstated to their accounts.
The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is now estimated at 12 million and they account for about one in every 20 workers. Potentially large number of illegals could gain access to valid work-authorized Social Security numbers should Congress pass "guest worker" immigration legislation or fail to block the U.S./Mexico Totalization Agreement from taking effect. TSCL believes this would create an enormous drain on the Social Security Trust Fund triggering cuts for current retirees who earned their benefits legally.
Sources: Statement of the Honorable Patrick P. O’Carroll, Inspector General, Social Security Administration, Before the House Subcommittee on Social Security, March 2, 2006. "Better Coordination Among Federal Agencies Could Reduce Unidentified Earnings Reports, " GAO, February 2005, GAO05-154. "Number of Illegal Immigrants Hits 12 Million," The Associated Press, March 7, 2006. "Evidence of Work Fraud Untapped," Liz Chandler, Knight Ridder Newspapers, April 23, 2006.
May 2006
