How can it be that Illegal Immigrants can receive Social Security benefits, what is the process?
Summary Republicans are tagging Democratic opponents across the country for wanting to “give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants.” But nobody’s proposing paying benefits to illegals, not until and unless they become US citizens or are granted legal status. The charge is a mischaracterization of an amendment offered during debate of the immigration bill that passed the Senate last May with a healthy bi-partisan majority, 62-36. The amendment would change current law to prevent immigrants from getting credit toward future Social Security benefits from taxes paid before they have legal permission to work. The measure has become a popular campaign issue for Republicans, particularly incumbent House members who raise it against their Democratic challengers. We have counted 29 GOP ads attacking Democrats with various versions of this misleading claim. Similar misconceptions about the measure were spread as part of a chain e-mail last spring and summer. Along with this latest swarm
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for social security, and do not receive it except possibly through fraud or forged identity. In fact, though they aren’t eligible to receive benefits, most illegal immigrants pay into social security. Unless they are working under the table, they usually use fake or “borrowed” social security numbers to land jobs. Social Security payroll taxes are then taken from their paychecks, which they will never get back in the form of benefits. $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file during the 1990s, 2 1/2 times the amount of the 1980s. In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security revenue and $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the administration, 9 million W-2s with incorrect numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or 1.5 percent of total reported wages.
