Illegal Immigrants from Mexico Pose Real Threat to
Social Security
by Phyllis Schlafly
Posted Nov 16, 2004
Democrats are trying to make an
issue out of President Bush's alleged plan to "privatize" Social Security,
scaring seniors into thinking their checks will be cut off. That is a phony
issue; all the president suggests is to offer younger workers the option (not
the compulsion) of transferring a very small part of their Social Security
benefit into private investments.
The real threat to Social Security
doesn't come from giving young people this opportunity. The threat comes from a
Bush administration plan to load illegal immigrants into the Social Security
system, an idea that would skyrocket costs and bankrupt the system at the same
time baby boomers flood into their benefit years.
The code word for this
racket is "totalization." The United States has totalization agreements with 20
countries, which have been reasonable and uncontroversial, but totalization with
Mexico is TOTALLY different.
The idea behind totalization with other
countries is to ensure a pension to those few individuals who work legally in
two countries by "totalizing" their payments into the pension systems of both
countries. All existing totalization agreements are with developed nations whose
retirement benefits are on par with U.S. benefits, and the affected employees
work for companies that have been paying taxes into the other countries'
retirement systems.
Workers from those other 20 countries come with
employer documents verifying that they are authorized to work in the United
States. Only a minuscule fraction of Mexicans enter with such
documents.
The legitimate goal of totalization with other countries is to
avoid double taxation for retirement when employers assign their employees to
work temporarily in another country. Reciprocity works because there is rough
parity between the number of U.S. workers in the 20 other countries and the
foreigners from those countries who work in the United States.
But this
goal has no relevance to Mexico. There is no parity between the number of
Mexicans working in the United States and the number of U.S. citizens working in
Mexico, and absolutely no parity in the social security systems of the two
countries.
Mexican benefits are not remotely equal to U.S. benefits.
Americans receive benefits after working for 10 years, but Mexicans have to work
24 years before receiving benefits.
Mexican workers receive back in
retirement only what they actually paid in, plus interest, whereas the U.S.
Social Security system is skewed to give lower-wage earners benefits greatly in
excess of what they and their employers contributed.
Mexico has two
different retirement programs, one for public-sector employees, which is
draining the national treasury, and one for private-sector workers, which is
estimated to cover only 40 percent of the work force. The remaining workers are
in the off-the-record economy euphemistically called the "informal"
sector.
The 10 million Mexicans who have illegally entered the United
States previously lived in poverty, did not pay social security taxes in Mexico
and did not work for employers who paid taxes into a retirement plan. If they
were working at all, it was in the off-the-record economy.
Illegality is
no issue with the countries where the United States has existing totalization
agreements because none of them accounts for even 1 percent of the U.S illegal
population. On the other hand, Mexico provides more than two-thirds of the
illegal immigrants in the United States.
The Bush totalization plan would
pay out billions in Social Security benefits to Mexicans for work they did in
the United States using fraudulent Social Security numbers, something Americans
would be jailed for doing. It would pay Social Security disability benefits to
Mexicans who worked in the United States as little as three years.
The
Bush totalization plan would lure even more Mexicans into the United States
illegally in the hope of amnesty and eligibility for Social Security benefits.
The Bush plan would even cover spouses and dependents of Mexican illegal
immigrants who mighty never have lived in the United States.
Because few
if any of the illegal immigrants have built up any equity in the Mexican
retirement system, what is there to totalize? Totalization is a plan for U.S.
taxpayers to end up assuming the entire burden.
When George W. Bush
became President in 2001, the Mexican government expected the United States to
pass amnesty (disguised as a guest worker plan and "regularizing" the entry of
Mexicans). After Sept. 11, 2001, Mexico's national policy turned to increasing
the number of its nationals working in the United States and getting them to
qualify for all the social benefits and privileges Americans receive, from
drivers licenses to Social Security and Social Security disability.
The
social security commissioners of both Mexico and the Bush administration signed
a totalization agreement in June 2004, but the text of the agreement has been
kept secret. Maybe we will be permitted to see it after the president approves
it and sends it to Congress.
Let your representatives in Congress know
you want them to stop this billion-dollar sellout of American workers and
taxpayers.