U.S. weighs Social Security benefits for Mexicans

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U.S. weighs Social Security benefits for Mexicans

By Sergio Bustos, The Salt Lake Tribune , Gannett News Service
October 29, 2003

   Hundreds of millions of dollars in Social Security payments may someday be headed south of the border.
    A Social Security Administration spokesman said U.S. and Mexican officials are continuing "informal discussions" about a potential agreement that would allow millions of Mexicans working here to collect U.S. Social Security benefits in Mexico .
    The proposal has riled some Republican lawmakers. They worry that it could reward scores of undocumented Mexican immigrants with a U.S. pension, draining the country's Social Security trust fund at a time when its future solvency is in doubt.
    "Talk about an incentive for illegal immigration," said GOP Rep. Ron Paul of Texas . "How many more would break the law to come to this country if promised U.S. government paychecks for life?"
    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, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "It's only fair they get back a benefit they deserve that will keep them from dying in poverty."
    Final approval of any U.S.-Mexico "totalization" agreement is up to Congress. But Mexico is prepared to administer an agreement, current Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart told lawmakers at a congressional hearing Sept. 11.
    Under a totalization agreement between two countries, workers may accumulate enough credits to qualify for Social Security benefits in either country -- or both.
    The federal government began pursuing such agreements in 1977 to help make Americans sent abroad by their employers eligible for U.S. Social Security benefits. Today, the United States has pacts with 20 countries, mostly in Europe .
    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.
    But a U.S.-Mexico agreement would dwarf the earlier agreements with other countries, critics of the proposal say. They point out that the combined number of recipients from those 20 countries is tiny compared with the potentially vast number of Mexican citizens who could become eligible for U.S. Social Security.
    "None of those countries have public policies that encourage illegal immigration to the United States ," said Republican Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims.
    Social Security Administration officials predict that by 2050, 300,000 Mexicans would collect $650 million in benefits a year.
    But a recent General Accounting Office report said those numbers failed to account for the presence of many potentially eligible undocumented Mexican immigrants and their families.
    Census figures show that the United States is home to 9 million Mexican citizens. More than half -- about 5 million -- reportedly are here illegally.
    Barnhart assured lawmakers that undocumented immigrants do not get Social Security benefits.
    "That's a myth," she said. "As is the case with our existing agreements, a totalization agreement with Mexico would not alter current law on this issue."
    That's true, but a provision in the Social Security Act allows undocumented immigrants to get Social Security benefits if the United States and another country have a totalization agreement.
    Former undocumented immigrants also could become eligible if they later become 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," said the inspector general's report. "It only considers whether the individual can prove he or she paid Federal Insurance Contribution Act [FICA] taxes as part of this work."
    To qualify for U.S. Social Security benefits, Mexicans must prove they worked in the United States at least 18 months.