Social security for illegals
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 19, 2006
The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.
"There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me," said Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. "It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment."
The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote.
"We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy," said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.
"The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our community," he said. "If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families."
Mr. Ensign was among 44 Republicans and five Democrats who voted to block such payouts.
"It makes no sense to reward millions of illegal immigrants for criminal behavior while our Social Security system is already in crisis," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "Why in the world would we endorse this criminal activity with federal benefits? The Senate missed a big opportunity to improve this bill, and I doubt American seniors will be pleased with the result."
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny illegals the benefits.
"We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts," he said. "That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the Social Security Trust Fund."
Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this fall's elections, raised by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.
"Instead of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system," Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. "Allowing illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate."
The Senate also yesterday approved an amendment to adopt English as the nation's official language, while reversing course from the day before on protections for U.S. workers who will face new competition from unskilled immigrant labor under the Senate bill. In addition, senators voted last night to kill an amendment that would have specified that the guest-worker program will not provide visas that would provide a path to citizenship.
ILLEGAL ALIENS TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY & HEALTHCARE IN U.S.
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
by Jim Kouri
January 8, 2007
c 2007 NewsWithViews.com
While the nation's capital and the news media celebrated the appointment of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as America's first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, no mention was made of one of her priorities in the new Democrat-controlled congress: Social Security checks for illegal aliens who live in the US or in Mexico.
The federal government attempted to keep the scheme under wraps, but a grassroots organization forced the Social Security Administration to release the document titled," The US-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The Retired Enlisted Association or TREA forced government disclosure through lawsuits they filed through their Senior Citizens League.
Their legal action, which took over three years of fighting to resolve, was based on the Freedom of Information Act. Thanks to TREA, Americans now have an opportunity to read material that was being kept in the shadows by President Bush as well as Republican and Democrat members of both houses of the US Congress, and the news media.
According to TREA, the Totalization Agreement will allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to collect billions of Social Security dollars, whether they are living in the US or living in Mexico.
TREA points to a gaping loophole in the Social Security law that could result in millions of today's Mexican workers to eventually collect billions of dollars worth of Social Security benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers, putting huge new pressures on a Social Security Trust Fund that is nearing bankruptcy.
The plan is expected to be coupled with the Senate-sponsored guest-worker program. If an illegal worker working in the United States obtains a legitimate Social Security number through guest worker immigration legislation, that illegal worker could eventually apply for Social Security benefits once he or she has met certain requirements.
The part of the agreement that is sure to disturb Americans is that workers may be able to claim credits for work performed while illegally living and working in the US. The Social Security bureaucracy has what's known as an "earnings suspense file," which tracks wages paid to workers by employers that cannot be posted to the workers' records because there is no match for a name and Social Security number.
Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number - whether a legal citizen or not - wages earned while in the US unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account.
The agreement between the US and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is awaiting President Bush's signature. Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without Congressional vote, either House of Congress would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.
"The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within decades of bankruptcy - yet, they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise," said Ralph McCutchen, Chairman of the TREA Senior Citizens League. "Our 1.2 million elderly members didn't sacrifice through difficult times so we could fund millions of workers who crossed the border and decided to work here illegally."
For example, a worker who turns 62 after 1990 generally needs 40 calendar quarters of coverage to receive retirement benefits. Under totalization agreements, workers are allowed to combine earnings from both countries in order to qualify for benefits. The Agreement with Mexico, like other totalization agreements, would allow workers to qualify with just six quarters, or 18 months, of US coverage.
But Mexico's retirement system is radically different from that of the United States. For example, only 40 percent of non-government workers participate in Mexico's system, whereas 96 percent of America's non-government workers do. In addition, the US system is progressive, meaning lower wage earners get back much more than they put in; in Mexico, workers get back only what they put in, plus accrued interest.
"I applaud the persistent efforts of TREA Senior Citizens League to try to get documents from the US Government about the US-Mexican Social Security Totalization Agreement," said Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). "The American people are finally beginning to get some of the information regarding this Agreement that they have been seeking for so long."
According to the Social Security Administration, the Social Security Trust Fund will begin paying out more than it is taking in by 2017, and will be exhausted by the year 2040
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 19, 2006
The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.
"There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me," said Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. "It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment."
The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote.
"We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy," said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.
"The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our community," he said. "If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families."
Mr. Ensign was among 44 Republicans and five Democrats who voted to block such payouts.
"It makes no sense to reward millions of illegal immigrants for criminal behavior while our Social Security system is already in crisis," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "Why in the world would we endorse this criminal activity with federal benefits? The Senate missed a big opportunity to improve this bill, and I doubt American seniors will be pleased with the result."
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny illegals the benefits.
"We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts," he said. "That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the Social Security Trust Fund."
Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this fall's elections, raised by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.
"Instead of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system," Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. "Allowing illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate."
The Senate also yesterday approved an amendment to adopt English as the nation's official language, while reversing course from the day before on protections for U.S. workers who will face new competition from unskilled immigrant labor under the Senate bill. In addition, senators voted last night to kill an amendment that would have specified that the guest-worker program will not provide visas that would provide a path to citizenship.
ILLEGAL ALIENS TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY & HEALTHCARE IN U.S.
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
by Jim Kouri
January 8, 2007
c 2007 NewsWithViews.com
While the nation's capital and the news media celebrated the appointment of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as America's first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, no mention was made of one of her priorities in the new Democrat-controlled congress: Social Security checks for illegal aliens who live in the US or in Mexico.
The federal government attempted to keep the scheme under wraps, but a grassroots organization forced the Social Security Administration to release the document titled," The US-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The Retired Enlisted Association or TREA forced government disclosure through lawsuits they filed through their Senior Citizens League.
Their legal action, which took over three years of fighting to resolve, was based on the Freedom of Information Act. Thanks to TREA, Americans now have an opportunity to read material that was being kept in the shadows by President Bush as well as Republican and Democrat members of both houses of the US Congress, and the news media.
According to TREA, the Totalization Agreement will allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to collect billions of Social Security dollars, whether they are living in the US or living in Mexico.
TREA points to a gaping loophole in the Social Security law that could result in millions of today's Mexican workers to eventually collect billions of dollars worth of Social Security benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers, putting huge new pressures on a Social Security Trust Fund that is nearing bankruptcy.
The plan is expected to be coupled with the Senate-sponsored guest-worker program. If an illegal worker working in the United States obtains a legitimate Social Security number through guest worker immigration legislation, that illegal worker could eventually apply for Social Security benefits once he or she has met certain requirements.
The part of the agreement that is sure to disturb Americans is that workers may be able to claim credits for work performed while illegally living and working in the US. The Social Security bureaucracy has what's known as an "earnings suspense file," which tracks wages paid to workers by employers that cannot be posted to the workers' records because there is no match for a name and Social Security number.
Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number - whether a legal citizen or not - wages earned while in the US unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account.
The agreement between the US and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is awaiting President Bush's signature. Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without Congressional vote, either House of Congress would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.
"The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within decades of bankruptcy - yet, they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise," said Ralph McCutchen, Chairman of the TREA Senior Citizens League. "Our 1.2 million elderly members didn't sacrifice through difficult times so we could fund millions of workers who crossed the border and decided to work here illegally."
For example, a worker who turns 62 after 1990 generally needs 40 calendar quarters of coverage to receive retirement benefits. Under totalization agreements, workers are allowed to combine earnings from both countries in order to qualify for benefits. The Agreement with Mexico, like other totalization agreements, would allow workers to qualify with just six quarters, or 18 months, of US coverage.
But Mexico's retirement system is radically different from that of the United States. For example, only 40 percent of non-government workers participate in Mexico's system, whereas 96 percent of America's non-government workers do. In addition, the US system is progressive, meaning lower wage earners get back much more than they put in; in Mexico, workers get back only what they put in, plus accrued interest.
"I applaud the persistent efforts of TREA Senior Citizens League to try to get documents from the US Government about the US-Mexican Social Security Totalization Agreement," said Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). "The American people are finally beginning to get some of the information regarding this Agreement that they have been seeking for so long."
According to the Social Security Administration, the Social Security Trust Fund will begin paying out more than it is taking in by 2017, and will be exhausted by the year 2040
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they haven't got a clue that with all these "legislations" they are just signing a death warrant to all those people. 0
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