Prohibits S.S. Benefits for Wages Earned While in U.S. Illegally

Washington, DC, Jan 9, 2007 - House Conference Secretary John Carter (TX-31) today introduced a bill that will protect Social Security, especially for the millions of Baby Boomers who will soon be receiving retirement benefits. The Social Security Protection Act will prohibit illegal aliens from receiving Social Security benefits for time they were in the country illegally.

“If we give millions of illegal aliens Social Security benefits, there is no doubt—Social Security will go broke. That is why I introduced this bill to ensure that Social Security is protected for the millions of Americans who have legally earned their benefits,” Congressman Carter said. “Baby Boomers are quickly approaching retirement, and we are already working on solutions that will ensure that Social Security is available for future generations. Now is not the time to increase the burden on the Social Security system by allowing the more than ten million illegal immigrants to receive benefits for the time they worked in our country illegally.”

Ø Prohibits Social Security from paying out benefits to any US Citizen for wages earned while said US Citizen was illegally in the United States.

Ø Instructs the Commissioner of Social Security to recompute all existing benefits to account for any Social Security taxes paid while working without authorization. This language will not require repayment of benefits already paid at the previous rate.

For tax year 2003, even after 2 years of scrubbing the data, the Earnings Suspense File still contains 8.8 million W-2s, representing $57.8 billion in wages that cannot be accounted for. The average illegal household pays $1,687 into Social Security and receives $289 annually: a net gain of $1,398 annually per household – this amounts to around $5 billion total added to the Social Security coffers. If illegal immigrants suddenly gain access to these funds, it will endanger the solvency of Social Security for millions of legal American citizens.