Posted on 10/29/2003 6:02:27 AM PST by FITZ
Hundreds of millions of dollars in Social Security payments may someday be headed south of the border.
A Social Security Administration spokesman in Washington, D.C., said U.S. and Mexican officials are continuing "informal discussions" to allow millions of Mexicans working in the United States to collect U.S. Social Security benefits in Mexico after as little as 18 months in the United States, instead of the current 10 years.
Payments would be made on a prorated basis, depending on years worked in the United States.
For migrant workers in El Paso, it would be a godsend.
Most, like Alfredo Sanchez, end up working more than 10 years in the United States before hanging up their hats, but they hope a formal agreement between the countries would make it easier for them to receive payments.
Sanchez, 56, is battling red tape to get help from Social Security since a car accident put an end to his 17-year career as a produce picker. Sanchez, who lives in Chihuahua and has a work permit in the United States, was picking onions in Hobbs, N.M., when he was run over by a car in July. He found himself in a wheelchair with no savings because he has sent every penny he has ever made to Mexico.
"Right now, I don't really know what's going to happen to me," he said.
Carlos Marentes, director of Sin Fronteras migrant farm workers center in Downtown El Paso, is helping Sanchez. Marentes said it is often hard for workers to prove they have been contributing to Social Security for more than 10 years because they get paid mostly cash.
"These workers move between the two countries, but they get no protection in either. There needs to be a binational solution," Marentes said.
The Social Security proposal, called a "totalization" agreement, means workers may accumulate enough credits to qualify for Social Security benefits in either country -- or both. U.S. workers in Mexico would also benefit from the agreement in that they would not have to pay Social Security taxes to the Mexican government. Social Security Administration officials estimate American workers and their employers would save $134 million each year.
Such agreements already exist between the United States and 20 countries, mostly in Europe. These agreements are eventually up to Congress, which so far has passed every proposal.
In 2001, the federal government paid out $173 million in Social Security benefits to about 89,000 foreigners living abroad, a fraction of the $408 billion distributed the same year to 45 million U.S. residents.
Social Security Administration officials estimate that about 50,000 Mexicans would collect $78 million in the first year of a U.S.-Mexico agreement. They predict that by 2050, 300,000 Mexicans would collect $650 million in benefits a year. Currently, the Federal Benefits Unit at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez sends Social Security checks to about 18,000 to 20,000 Mexican nationals in the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California, Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. The unit started this year to offer direct deposit in Mexico to reduce delays and reduce the risk of theft, consular officials said.
In Washington, the proposal has riled Republican lawmakers because a provision in the Social Security Act allows undocumented immigrants to get Social Security benefits if their country has a totalization agreement with the United States. Those immigrants would have to prove they had paid into the U.S. system. This has happened in cases in which an undocumented immigrant uses a relative's Social Security card to obtain work and then gets some of his wages deducted for Social Security purposes.
"Talk about an incentive for illegal immigration," GOP Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said. "How many more would break the law to come to this country if promised U.S. government paychecks for life?"
Census figures show that the United States is home to 9 million Mexican citizens. More than half -- about 5 million -- are reportedly here illegally, according to federal estimates.
Paul and other Republicans also worry that the proposal would drain the United States' Social Security trust fund at a time when its future solvency is in doubt.
But supporters of the proposal argue that Mexican immigrants -- legal and illegal -- pay millions, if not billions, of dollars in payroll taxes and have the right to claim Social Security benefits.
"Let's be honest: There are millions of Mexican immigrants contributing to the Social Security system and the U.S. economy," said Katherine Culliton, a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It's only fair they get back a benefit they deserve that will keep them from dying in poverty."
Former undocumented immigrants could also become eligible if they later became legal residents. A recent investigation by the Office of Inspector General at the Social Security Administration found two such cases.
In one case, a Mexican man who used his father's Social Security number for nine years in the 1970s claimed after becoming a legal resident in 1989 that he was owed benefits. He began collecting benefits in 1999.
And a Mexican woman who worked illegally under an invalid Social Security number for six years in the 1990s later petitioned for credit. She began receiving disability benefits in 1999.
The agency "does not consider the work-authorization status of the individual when they earned the wages," stated the inspector general's report.
"It only considers whether the individual can prove he or she paid Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes as part of this work."
Sergio Bustos may be reached at sbustos@gns.gannett.com; Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com
I wouldn't mind them raising the retirement age to 70 so that Americans would have to work 50 years before collecting Social Security ----- but instead they intend to turn around and give our Social Security money to people who worked in the US illegally for 18 months and never paid a dime in? Something is wrong with that. Plus making Americans pay taxes on the money they get back but they put in in the first place.
And this guy here --- admits he sent every penny to Mexico --- not to Social Security ---- that was for the rest of us to do. He will get his check from the money WE put in.
There's only one cure: spread it as far and wide as possible.
Grrrrrr.......
Absolutely. All of us who care about America and our kids future have to keep pounding on this. No letup. Keep after the politicians, send letters to the editor, inform anyone who'll listen. And give as much as possible to support politicians who are working to shut this activity down. USIRP
Sounds like there's going to be a booming business in fradulent work backgrounds. More job opportunities for the criminal element anyway.
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