FW: All foreign-born Swept into Attack on Social Security

[Karin Wang]

ACTION ALERT:  As you may know, the Senate is preparing to vote on a number of amendments to the Senate immigration bill.  Many of the proposed amendments make a bad bill even worse -- please take time out to call your Senators on Monday and during the week of June 25.  Below is one amendment that could economically devastate many in our community, including naturalized citizens.  Please call your Senators -- and please also forward this (as always) to family and friends in other states.  We need all Senators to hear from us.

 

 

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From: National Immigration Law Center [mailto:NI...@mail.democracyinaction.org]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:40 PM
To: kw...@apalc.org
Subject: All foreign-born Swept into Attack on Social Security

 

Public Benefits

Please send all email responses to bla...@nilc-dc.org

 

Urgent Action Needed: Newly expanded Ensign amendment would place tens of millions of Social Security account holders
at risk of losing coverage for contributions to the system - including naturalized citizens currently on benefits.

Senator Ensign (R-NV) recently revised an amendment (SA 1490) to the Senate immigration bill that would place the hard earned Social Security benefits of all foreign-born persons in jeopardy, fundamentally changing the rules of the system after the fact. Since last year, Sen. Ensign has pushed for an amendment that would disqualify currently undocumented persons from receiving credit for contributions paid into the social security system while working without employment authorization. This week, in anticipation of the Senate's renewed consideration of immigration reform legislation, he filed a revision to his amendment that would subject all foreign born persons -- including elderly naturalized citizen retirees already receiving benefits -- to a review of their entire work histories. Under the amendment, SSA is required to disqualify credit for any quarter of work for which it cannot determine work authorization. There is no existing automated records system for determining authorization for work performed in the past, let alone decades ago. An impossible burden to prove past work authorization will therefore fall on individuals, placing them at risk of benefits termination from a system that was supposed to be there to protect them.

Don't let this outrage occur. Contact your Senators immediately to express your strong opposition to Senator Ensign's amendment (SA 1490), and to urge them to fight to protect the promise of Social Security. Demand that they:

• Preserve the promise and fairness of the social security system. Our Social Security system has served our country well for over 70 years based on a simple principle: if you work hard and pay into the system, you can count on your contributions in your old age. As we fix our broken immigration system to create fair and workable rules that serve our country into the future, we must also keep Social Security fair and workable. That means that all American citizens and legal residents who paid into the system through hard work must be able to count on their contributions in old age or disability. Two former commissioners of the Social Security Administration recently criticized proposals like the Ensign amendment as "fundamentally at odds with the philosophical premise underlying Social Security," noting that "Social Security has always been a contributory system: workers pay taxes based upon their earnings and earn benefits based on those earnings... Social Security is an earned entitlement. It is not fair to collect payroll taxes, justified because they create a right to receive benefits, and then to disqualify workers and their family members from the very benefits for which they have paid taxes."

• Protect tens of millions of citizens and legal immigrants -- including those currently receiving Social Security -- from the nightmare of having to re-prove their entire work histories in order to maintain benefits already earned. The Ensign amendment would disqualify coverage to any foreign-born person unless SSA is able to determine that the person was authorized to be employed during the work quarters on which the coverage is based. This will require SSA to identify which account holders are foreign-born and to re-inspect the complete work history of all foreign-born persons to determine the work authorization status for each and every quarter of employment already credited to their accounts. This process will ensnare tens of millions of Social Security account holders, including elderly retirees, persons with disabilities, and spouses and children receiving survivors benefits, including naturalized citizens.

You can reach the office of your Senator by calling the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

To locate your local Senator go to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

More talking points are here and a background paper on the original Ensign amendment is here

For more information please contact Jonathan Blazer, bla...@nilc-dc.org

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