By Victoria Brenner, Legislative Analyst, and Leticia Miranda, Senior Policy Advisor, NCLR
As part of its mark-up of the comprehensive immigration reform proposal S. 744, the Senate Judiciary Committee has already considered 81 amendments. On Monday, when the committee reconvenes, it is slated to take up one that would be exceedingly harmful – amendment #24 offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah (Hatch #24), which denies lawfully present immigrants the Social Security benefits they earned through their work and payroll taxes. This is particularly unfair because hardworking immigrant taxpayers have contributed billions in payroll taxes to the Social Security Trust Fund, boosting its revenue and prolonging its solvency.
Why is this amendment so bad? First, reducing access to Social Security for Latino immigrant workers would push millions into poverty later in life. If aspiring citizens are denied credit for their past contributions, their benefits would be substantially reduced and many would fail to achieve sufficient credits to ever qualify for Social Security. Moreover, over four million Latino children of immigrants would be would be left without the protection of Social Security in case their working parent died or became disabled. There are also broader macroeconomic considerations.
