Illegal Aliens Help Social Security?

"The contributions by unauthorized immigrants to Social Security -- essentially, to the retirement income of everyday Americans -- are much larger than previously known, raising questions about the efforts in many states and among Republicans in Congress to force these workers out," says Edward Schumacher-Matos in the Washington Post. "The Social Security actuaries estimate that two-thirds of unauthorized immigrant workers, or 5.6 million people, were paying into the system in 2007. Roughly half used a Social Security number tied to an invented name or one that belonged to someone else. Of the rest, many got legal cards when they entered the country under a temporary work visa. They stayed illegally after their visas expired."

Periodically, claims about the benefits of illegal workers' contribution to Social Security are made. There are two things to remember in that regard. First, the SS tax collections from illegal aliens are vastly outweighed by the fiscal costs they incur. Second, if an amnesty were adopted, those benefits would disappear, because as legal workers, those SS contributions could be reclaimed, and the future retirement benefits that would be paid would further undermine the viability of the system. The belief that continually adding more immigrants will solve the Social Security funding balance issue is the belief in an unending Ponzi scheme. As FAIR reported in 2000 in response to claims by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, it is a myth that immigration will "solve" the anticipated Social Security funding problems. Read FAIR's report A Ponzi Problem: The U.S. Dependency Ratio, Social Security Solvency and the False Panacea of Immigration (2000)