From the Washington Post:The Donald Trump campaign released its first political ad of the general election, focused on immigration. It begins with a hypothetical situation of what immigration would look like under Democrat Hillary Clinton’s America.
The narrator says: “In Hillary Clinton’s America, the system stays rigged against Americans. Syrian refugees flood in. Illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay. Collecting Social Security benefits, skipping the line. Our border open. It’s more of the same, but worse.”
Is the claim about undocumented immigrants collecting Social Security benefits accurate? ...
Unauthorized immigrants, who are not granted any deferred-action status, are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits or any other federal means-tested benefits. But they pay taxes and pay into the Social Security system.
Even though the majority of unauthorized immigrants can’t collect the benefits, they paid about $12 billion into the cash flow of the Social Security program in 2010, according to the Social Security actuary. (Some undocumented immigrants could theoretically collect benefits — illegally — if they’ve overstayed their visas or falsely obtained a Social Security number.) That means the U.S. government gets far more than it pays out when it comes to unauthorized immigrants. ...
Aren't the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants eligible for SSI and other forms of public assistance? I'm no Trump supporter, but I think you should consider the amount of taxpayer funds spent on the children of illegal immigrants before stating that the U.S. government gets far more than it pays out.
ReplyDeleteIf the children are born here they are citizens! They should receive all the rights and benefits of a citizen... It's their right and our obligation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jim, but five out of five American xenophobes surveyed disagree, and Trump's their man.
ReplyDeleteThey are eligible for SSI as soon as they qualify for a green card. Establishing identity varies by country of origin. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have issued one-time use passports to anyone who payed their required $4k + fees. This guarrantees refugee status to their buyers. Anyone who states they are the victim of a hate crime, terrorism or domestic violence as well as a targeted religion in their country of origin are given more careful consideration. Many NPOs such as LaRaza have assisted for 2 decades in obtaining pro bono treatment so a medical file builds. There are more than 125 different types of deportation orders and only a handful bar a non citizen from benefits. At last count there were more than 10k websites in 37 languages on how to qualify for SSI. I received this info from INS/ICE staff in Los Angeles as far back as 1998. And the beat goes on.
ReplyDeleteIf someone has a green card they aren't illegal immigrants.
ReplyDeleteThey are eligible for SSI as soon as they qualify for a green card.
ReplyDeleteNot true at all. If they arrived after 8/22/1996 (would now be 20 years old and no longer children) they are not eligible for SSI unless they are citizens. Green Card is not good enough. See https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0500501400 POMS SI 00501.400
And, lest you forget, even if they are citizens, they have to be found disabled. (Aside from income and rescue limitations) Today, children applying for disability face long odds and extreme delays.
We do pay SSI to children if illegals. Yes, the children are citizens and therefore are eligible. Funny though, since the parents don't have SSN's you just have to take their word if they are working it not since there is no way to track it. In addition, if you do get "honest" law breakers who report their work, posting it is quite time consuming and complicated.
ReplyDeleteMany illegals won't seek benefits for which they might be eligible because they are afraid of being caught or attracting unwanted attention. Thank-you for your information anonymous at 7:13. Additionally, no one gets SSI until all income and resources are documented. Since when did the Social Security Administration take the word of the claimant or the representative without some supporting documentation?
ReplyDeleteGetting SSI isn't easy for anyone, child, adult, someone from another country, etc. I remember how much fun I had with a Vietnamese refugee, all legal, but her paperwork was in vietnamese. The ssa worker and I got her qualified, but it was no walk in the park. Her daughter brought her to me because she wasn't able to get it done.
I'll tell you when...when the parents are illegals and do not have SSN's. I thought I explained that clearly. So...they apply for the legal child (born here) and the child gets medically approved. Now, you have make an illegal parent the payee. This is all manual and outside of the current system because with no SSN's, you can't enter them regularly. Furthermore, the record is not in the MSSICS system because again, the parents don't have SSN's. Now, if the parents are working illegally, and if the hand you some hand written note about their earnings, you post t as V1 income manually - again since the parents have no SSN's. Did you think SSA just ignores disabled children of illegals?
DeleteIf an individual is eligible to apply for benefits then they are, by definition, a citizen and, therefore not an immigrant paying but taking nothing out.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just in case we've forgotten basic decency here... PEOPLE are not "illegal." They are undocumented, maybe, or just plain immigrants. Calling them "illegals" is not only inaccurate, but it's dehumanizing. Do you call the Pilgrims "illegals?"
I'd like to hijack this thread and ask why we pay child SSI anyway, when benefits for a person under their own number are otherwise exclusively meant to replace income no longer able to be earned (whether due to disability or retirement). Kids aren't expected to earn income. Medicaid covers medical expenses (in theory, I know). You can say, and somewhere I found where SSA did, that it's to replace parents' lost income for dealing with a sick child, but what if the parent didn't work? Is already replacing their income with disability for themselves?
ReplyDeleteThe real answer, of course, is that we aren't going to disturb SSI at this point because it has become the new Federal welfare since Federal welfare was gutted in the Clinton administration.
But the way the program is run (SSI generally, but specifically for kids), it really weakens the program overall and gives SSA's attackers more fodder to generally attack the agency.
Accurate on all accounts. I've been saying this for years...provide all if the medical and tutoring and childcare vouchers or rental vouchers or whatever, but cash - no way. It is federal welfare under the guise of a disability program.
DeleteThe Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution indicates that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship for nearly all individuals born in the United States, provided that their parents are foreign citizens, have permanent domicile status in the United States, and are engaging in business in the United States except performing in a diplomatic or official capacity of a foreign power.
ReplyDeleteAs of 2015, there has been no Supreme Court decision that explicitly holds that persons born in the U.S. to illegal aliens are automatically afforded U.S. citizenship.[26][27][28][29][30][31] Edward Erler, writing for the Claremont Institute, said that since the Wong Kim Ark case dealt with someone whose parents were in the United States legally, it provides no valid basis under the 14th Amendment for the practice of granting citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. He goes on to argue that if governmental permission for parental entry is a necessary requirement for bestowal of birthright citizenship, then children of illegal aliens must surely be excluded.
You copied and pasted this from Wikipedia... But, regardless, the 14th amendment provides automatic citizenship to a child born in this country or any of its territories.
DeleteNotably, the SCOTUS case cited above does not change this.
But still... While Wikipedia is a useful reference, it's hardly an authoritative source.
Wrong, for a child to be a citizen based upon birth in this country, the parents have to be here legally. Do some research on this. read the case law. If a parent is here illegally, they still owe their allegiance to their home country. Just as an American child born in Germany is not German, it is American. Fro some reason, bleeding heart liberals cannot or will not accept that this is the law.
ReplyDeleteI thought that our system of allowing citizenship to children born to undocumented parents was incorrect until I met the Akha of Thailand where citizenship is not automatically given to those born there. Even though the Akha have been in Thailand for generations most are noncitizens. They can not vote, get driver licenses, jobs etc. It is a hopeless cycle. If we deny citizenship to those born here we will not stop undocumented workers from coming into the United States and giving birth, we will just create another generation of undocumented underpaid workers.
ReplyDeleteBut as long as you wrongfully allow so called "birther babies" you are encouraging foreigners to break our laws and enter our country and take the jobs our unskilled underemployed class could do. The last several times there have been deportations in great numbers has been to insure Americans will have jobs. We currently have a very high unemployment rate, when the figures are done correctly and we have our own people needing those jobs. Why give our country away to foreigners when our Fathers have fought and died to sustain the American way of life?? As has been said before, "Are we the teat of the world?"
ReplyDelete