You don't seem to want to acknowledge the desperate conditions that drive people to flee their homes, their homelands, and face grueling journeys of hundreds of miles in the hope of giving their children a decent life.
If you cannot sympathize, that's unfortunate. In any event, the needed comprehensive immigration reform must promote legal immigration for the sake of the nation.
If the past dictates the future, between 80% and 90% of today's U.S. workforce is going to be reliant, in some capacity, on Social Security income when they retire. This 80% to 90% range reflects the percentage of retirees leaning on Social Security as a "major" or "minor" source of income across 20 years of annual Gallup surveys.
Unfortunately, this program responsible for doling out millions of benefit checks each month isn't on the soundest financial footing. A very big reason for that is America's worsening immigration problem.
If there is a silver lining for the program responsible for pulling more than 22 million people (including over 16 million seniors) out of poverty each year, it's that this projected funding shortfall doesn't equate to bankruptcy or insolvency for Social Security. If you've qualified for a retirement benefit or other protections, such as survivor or disability benefits, you'll receive a monthly check when eligible...
Aside from needing a sustainable influx of legal immigrants into the U.S., it's equally important to address the misinformation that undocumented workers are a hindrance to the traditional Social Security program. When I say "traditional Social Security program," I'm talking about paying retirement, survivor, and disabled-worker benefits.
Although the Social Security Administration oversees both programs, traditional Social Security and SSI are funded differently. Whereas SSI is funded by the general funds of the U.S. Treasury, traditional Social Security generates most of its revenue from the payroll tax on earned income, with the taxation of benefits and interest earned on its asset reserves playing a lesser role. The point is that these are two separate programs.
Undocumented workers are unable to receive a Social Security number, which means they cannot collect retirement benefits and won't qualify for the program's other protections -- like long-term disability and survivor insurance protection.
[A] study from New American Economy showed that undocumented workers contributed $13 billion in payroll tax revenue in 2016. These undocumented workers either used a friend's or family member's Social Security number to obtain work, or their employer failed to properly vet the worker. Either way, more than 1% of Social Security's annual revenue derives from undocumented workers, yet not one cent of benefits from traditional Social Security will be returned to these workers.
