Illegal immigrants raid on Social Security - Commentary by Jim Dean, Heritage TV

Jim Dean, Heritage TV producer/host

Jim Dean is the producer of Heritage TV and a member of Georgia Heritage Council.

Illegal immigrants raid on Social Security – Commentary by Jim Dean

Dear legal Americans,

As you will read below our government 'of the people' is refusing to release the details of the totalization deal with Mexico.

This 'deal' will allow huge numbers of low cost of living Mexicans to draw down U.S. level Social Security payments.

The variations on this scam are infinite. For example, one member of a large family could work illegally here for ten years, switching their phony ID to a different family member name every couple of years. When those people back home, who have never worked here, reach retirement age they can just file there Social Security papers and reference the work history created above. While these payments would not be large, back home in Mexico these folks would be moderate lottery winners.

A medical scam that has gone on for decades is the 'visiting relative serious illness' scam. When someone anywhere south of the border is diagnosed with a health problem like the need for open heart surgery, the family pools their funds to buy them a plane ticket to 'visit' a relative in Miami. Once they arrive, while in the taxi, they suffer chest pains and ask to be taken to the emergency room where tests show they need open heart surgery. A few days later, and $300,000 in medical bills later, they do go to visit relatives, and then fly home. The hospital and local taxpayers have just been robbed of $300K.

The people who do this see absolutely nothing wrong with it because they are 'allowed' to do this. And they have a point. Politicians leave this scam in place as a quiet way of getting that constituency's votes. You can just imagine what the reaction would be to have a family required to bond a visiting relative's health care costs here.

We have two types of immigration gangs that are robbing us blind. You have the classic street gangs, which have been in the news lately, but you also have the political and boardroom gangs who do the real financial damage. Both are parasites. The former runs a risk of prison. The latter almost never do. The street gang types feel this is unfair to them, and they have a point. The perpetrator who reinvents himself as a victim is all the rage now.

Government Withholds Documents Sought by TSCL on U.S. - Mexico Social Security Agreement

The Senior Citizen's League - March 2005

The U.S. government is withholding documents sought by TSCL pertaining to a highly controversial Social Security pact with Mexico. President Bush is pushing immigration proposals that would allow Mexican immigrants, including millions who worked here illegally, access to Social Security benefits. Yet at the same time, law-abiding Americans who paid into the system legally are being told that their benefits must be cut because Social Security is running out of money.

As this issue was going to press, details of a proposed Social Security Totalization agreement that was signed with Mexico in June of 2004 have yet to be made public. Shortly after the agreement was signed, TSCL filed a request for copies of documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The Social Security Administration is withholding the majority documents claiming they are exempt from mandatory disclosure.

Totalization agreements allow employers and persons who work outside of their home country to pay only one set of Social Security taxes. The agreements allow workers to "total" the amount of time worked in two countries in order to be eligible for Social Security. The U.S. currently has such treaties with some 20 other nations, but those countries have similar economies to that of the U.S.

In 2003 the General Accountability Office (GAO) said that the costs of a Totalization agreement with Mexico are "highly uncertain" because the government failed to include in those estimates the number of illegal immigrant workers who potentially may become eligible for benefits under such an agreement. Under current law immigrants earn work credits for Social Security even though they may be working in this country illegally and using a false Social Security number. Later if they obtain a valid Social Security number, as could happen under Totalization, they can ask to have those work credits while illegal reinstated to their accounts and earn benefits based on that illegal work.

The only way to stop the agreement with Mexico is for Congress to adopt a resolution to disapprove it. TSCL supports H. Res. 20, introduced by Representative J. D. Hayworth (AZ) that would disapprove the Totalization agreement with Mexico, and is working to stop this ill-advised giveaway of benefits.

Sources:
Request to the Social Security Administration under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, August 4, 2003.
"Proposed Totalization Agreement w/Mexico Presents Unique Challenges,"
Statement of Barbara Bovbjerg, GAO, September 11, 2003.

The Senior Citizen's League - March 2005

Government Withholds Documents Sought by TSCL on U.S. - Mexico Social Security Agreement

Jim Dean is the producer of Heritage TV and a member of the Georgia Heritage Council.