I believe that illegal aliens should not be allowed to collect Social Security benefits.

Recently, the text of the Social Security Totalization Agreement negotiated between the United States and Mexico was released to the public, bringing new attention both to this proposed agreement, and to the serious problem related to the payment of Social Security benefits to workers who earn “credit” in the Social Security system while illegally employed in the United States.

The twenty plus Totalization agreements the United States has negotiated with other nations are generally used to provide relief for foreign workers who are paying taxes to the Social Security system and to another nation’s social retirement system. The U.S.–Mexico Totalization agreement has been negotiated and signed by representatives of both governments. Now, the President must submit the agreement to Congress for its review, at which time Congress may accept or disapprove of the agreement before it can become law. Because this proposed agreement is so unpopular, the President has declined to send it to Congress, and has even kept the text of the agreement secret until recently. Because the actual text of this agreement has just become available, it is difficult to comment on the exact effect of the agreement. What we do know however, is that this agreement is likely to have a severely negative impact on the Social Security trust fund because of the unique factors associated with Mexico and the extraordinary number of Mexican citizens working in the United States who would be covered by the agreement. It appears that if implemented, this agreement would benefit Mexican citizens far more than it would benefit citizens of the United States. Please be assured that I will fight to prevent this agreement from becoming law if the President does decide to move forward with it.

The larger issue however, is that current Federal law allows non-citizens to receive Social Security payments based on credits earned while illegally employed. In 2003, Republicans in the House of Representatives sought to pass legislation to correct this situation, but opposition from Democrats in the U.S. Senate prevented the final product from fixing some of the largest loopholes in the law. The resulting legislation prevented the Social Security Administration from issuing Social Security numbers to persons who were not authorized to work at the date of issuance of the number, which was a major step forward, but only fixed one of the large loopholes. Workers who obtain valid Social Security numbers under current law may still overstay their work visas and continue to accrue credit in the Social Security system. Current law also does nothing to prohibit workers who earned Social Security credits while illegally employed in the U.S. from drawing benefits once they return to their country of origin.

I believe that allowing anyone to profit financially or otherwise from the commission of a crime is wrong. Under no circumstance should a worker be allowed credit in the Social Security system for unauthorized work. In the newly begun 110th Congress, I will continue to support legislation that I supported in the 109th Congress designed to fix the loopholes in current law once and for all. I will also continue to support key legislation designed to protect Social Security from other types of fraud by requiring minimum security standards for Social Security cards and requiring the establishment of a worker eligibility database to prevent illegal workers from gaining employment.

It’s hard to believe, but this legislation designed to protect Social Security and provide stronger enforcement of our immigration laws faces strong opposition from Democrats in the House and in the Senate. That is why I urge you to contact California’s Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to share your opinions about this critical legislation. Together, we can protect the Social Security system from exploitation by illegal-alien workers.



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