Social Security for illegal immigrants?

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There is an email going around in that urban legend fashion so popular with non-thinking and irrational conservatives who regularly drink the Rush Limbaugh / Fox News Kool-Aid that claims to be driving a petition to appeal to Obama (“regardless of whether you like him or not”) to veto a bill to give social security benefits to “illegal aliens.”

This, of course, is not what is happening or what the bill in question is about. What the email is about is fear-mongering and deception. What the bill is regarding is giving social security benefits to American citizens who were once illegal but now legal immigrants. Not aliens. Citizens. True, they weren’t born in the United States. True, they were once considered “illegal,” a loaded term to be sure. But they have since obtained their citizenship and have probably been productive, tax-paying (if not income, certainly sales taxes) citizens. Many of them have children who are natural born Americans who have been paying into the social security system for years.

Citizens. Not “illegal aliens” as the deceptive email suggests.

Check it out your self: http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/socialsecurity.asp

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About Carl Feagans 399 Articles
Professional archaeologist that currently works for the United States Forest Service at the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee. I'm also a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Army and spent another 10 years doing adventure programming with at-risk teens before earning my master's degree at the University of Texas at Arlington.

15 Comments

  1. How shallow and stupid can you people get. This bill is in preparation for AMNESTY which is coming next. The illegals will then have access to SOCIAL SECURITY. DAH !!

  2. Why should ANYONE who has not contributed to Social Security receive benefits, regardless of citizenship? Obama plans to bankrupt this country by creating a series of emergencies that need to be resolved NOW by an infusion of federal funds that are non-existent. Amnesty for illegals is the next step.

    • This, folks, is a prime example of the sort of citizen that is tuned in to the Glen Becks and Limbaughs of the world and tuned out to reality.

      No one is suggesting that people who don’t pay into Social Security will start collecting it. The bill in question says nothing about “amnesty for aliens.” You really have to be pretty ignorant not to understand that this is about SSI Benefits for naturalized citizens who have paid into the system. That’s it.

      Guys, stop letting nuts like Beck and Limbaugh do your thinking for you.

  3. I still fail to understand why a bill is needed to grant legalized citizens SS benefits. It is time we started to take care of all the legalized citizens and send the illegals back to there own country, where ever that might be. I do not see any other country pampering individuals that enter their country illegally.

  4. Of course, the goal is to pave a way for illegal aliens to obtain legality.

    Yes, they will be eligible for Social Security based on the SS taxes that they have contributed after they have established legality. They will not, however, have access to any benefits that were paid in while using false Social Security account numbers while their status was not legal.

    The money paid by undocumented immigrants (more than $6 billion per year) is channeled into the Earnings Suspense File, which holds payments made by people using false identities or incorrect Social Security numbers.

    Read more: About Illegal Aliens & Social Security Benefits | eHow.com

  5. Did you know that they do not need legality to get social security from us. Now I do not know whether that treaty that Bush drafted went through or not but if it did we are paying the Mexican government $345 billion in social security to pay legally and illegally. I do not know whether it has gone throw or not. We have the same agreement with Canada and who knows what other countries. So do they get SS whether they compete units or not while we do not get it if we do not have enough units?

  6. Some of these comments just don’t make sense. Am I wrong. Only citizens of the United States is entitled to Social Security. Pay back is based on what has been paid in by the person. If you are not a citizen you don’t particapte. That it.

  7. TO:cfeagans
    How can someone be teaching with such ignorance of what is happening to our country. You are part of the problem. Beck at least backs up his statements with facts. You only give rhetoric and it is obvious you are not doing your research. So who is drinking the kool- aid? Apparently you belong to the Socialist movement that is destroying our country. You need to do your homework!!!!!!

  8. This is in comment to Les’s statment…As he states they will not be given benefits on any contributions made while using a fake socials, but only those that we’re paid in after they were legal… What the heck!! How in the world did we allow them citizenship after they broke the law by using a fake social security??? The only benefit we should have given them was a free ride back to where they came from! The older I get the more upset I get about this whole social security thing. All I want is for all these immigrants to go back where they came from. I wish them no harm or suffering and I will even pray for them. They are welcome to visit and spend money in our country as a traveler as many of us do when we travel to their country. Because they live so many families to a dwelling they can afford to take lower paying jobs, of which at one time were not low paying until companies saw opportunity to make more profits by hiring these people that would take the low pay and at the same time fulfilling quotas to meet discrimination requirements. I am not saying America didn’t need to lower their standard of living but so many have worked so hard for so long and are now being replaced/discriminated against because an immigrant will work for less pay and on and on.
    Do we go to their countries and behave with such self righteousness? All I know is we need to take our country back and start getting ourselves back on track, dealing with OUR OWN self righteous people who are abusing our broken systems, not laying down the red carpet for foreigners and adding huge issues to our problems. Lord knows the camels back is so breaking!

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