Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions?

The New York Times has an article today titled, Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security with Billions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html

What a shocking title. Was this going to be a defense or indictment of the Social Security system? Could one expect a judgment on today’s level of illegal immigration? Actually, the article provided none of the above. It mostly laments how illegals probably won’t be entitled to any of the social security (or Medicare) taxes that are withheld from their paychecks. So the author is only addressing the subset of illegals that procure fake IDs and work “on the books” of an employer.

I’ve summarized the lowlights below. My comments are in RED.

STOCKTON, Calif. - Since illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system. (He contributes more than most?….WTF?)

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits. (He wasn’t ELIGIBLE for much before he jumped the border either.)

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year. (Is this “subsidy” for the government maybe offset by the increased government spending on social services, law enforcement, and education for illegal immigrants and their families? In other words, is this exploitation only a one-way street?)

In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. (Is $6-7$ billion a lot of money?)

Yet to immigrants, the lack of retirement benefits is just part of the package of hardship they took on when they decided to make the trek north. Tying vines in a vineyard some 30 miles north of Stockton, Florencio Tapia, 20, from Guerrero, along Mexico's Pacific coast, has no idea what the money being withheld from his paycheck is for. "I haven't asked," Mr. Tapia said. (So this journalist cares more about illegals paying into the Ponzi “trust fund” than the rest of Americans, I guess.)

What a totally contrived and insipid news article… What did the NY Times do? Say, “How can we combine two issues of the day into one story?”

The $6-7 Billion in annual social security tax revenue sounds like a big number, but it isn’t. With over $550 Billion in total social security revenue, that “bolster” amounts to at best 1.2 % of the total. Journalists love to scare the little people with big numbers.

In the article, some Social Security actuary is quoted as saying that 75% of illegals have gotten the fake IDs and are working on the books. I don’t believe this for a second. If that was true, why do illegals migrate (pardon the pun) towards cash jobs like cab driving, housecleaning, landscaping, restaurants,….. Now I don’t know the true percentage, but am hard-pressed to ignore my own empiricism for the word of some bureaucrat.

Another glaring error is the estimated 7 million illegal workers. Every other estimate puts the number more like 11 million illegals, of which 6-7 million are Mexicans. Where are the editors?

Again, I am not bashing illegal immigrants, just the shoddy journalism and the shameless disregard for logic and facts. Actually, I have a more benign view of illegal immigrants than almost anyone I know. But my views are evolving and I see where I could be completely wrong. Heather Mac Donald has said that many in the northeast think like me because we are colored by our interactions with hardworking gardeners and waiters. What is not to appreciate in people working their tails off for a better life? What we don’t see are the violent gangs in California and other parts. Nor do we remember the 9/11 hijackers.

Here is a great article she wrote last year, http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_3_immigrant_gang.html.


Unlike the NY Times article, this is definitely worth reading.