TSCL Believes New Policy Would Add To Growing Social Security Woes
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently began a review of all pending immigration deportation cases with the goal of dismissing those of illegal immigrants with no criminal records. TSCL is concerned that the policy, which would scale back deportations of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, could potentially add hundreds of billions in new costs to the growing deficit problems of Social Security, SSI, Medicare and Medicaid.
The potential cost of illegal immigration on federal benefit programs is for now still flying under the radar as political candidates vie for votes. Latinos are becoming a key electorate group. In 2010, The National Council of La Raza estimated that 20 million Latinos were eligible to vote in the 2010 elections — representing the fastest electorate growth rate of any group in the U.S.
Critics of the new immigration policy, including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Lamar Smith (TX- 21), recently said in an opinion piece: “this massive backdoor amnesty to illegal immigrants could allow illegal immigrants to receive work authorization and could put even more U.S. citizens on the unemployment rolls.”
Access to work authorization is a key issue for Social Security. With work authorization, non-citizen workers can become eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits. Under current law workers become fully eligible for Social Security benefits after ten years of work. A new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center indicates that an estimated 6.4 million illegals have been living in this country for at least 10 years and thus potentially would be in line for Social Security and Medicare should they receive work authorization.
In 2007 an analysis released by TSCL estimated that if 6 million illegal workers were to gain work authorization it would cost Social Security alone more than $2.6 trillion in benefits through 2041. Under current law, if illegal immigrants get work authorization at some point they could file claim for Social Security benefits. Currently the Social Security Administration uses all reported earnings to determine entitlement to benefits, including earnings for jobs worked illegally if the worker has kept evidence, like W2s, of earnings.
TSCL continues to work with Members of Congress for stronger protections of Social Security. TSCL supports legislation that would ban the payment of benefits based on illegal work — H.R. 787, “No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act,” introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), and S.95, legislation to prevent Social Security credit from being earned without legal status, introduced by Senator David Vitter (LA).
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Sources: “Latino Voters and the 2010 Election: Numbers, Parties, and Issues, National Council of La Raza, 2010.
