How many migrants are receiving Social Security numbers?

(NewsNation) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk is claiming that Social Security numbers were handed retired past twelvemonth to much than 2 cardinal immigrants who entered the United States illegally and that those cards were subsequently utilized to cod benefits the migrants are not entitled to receive.

Musk, speaking astatine a play town hallway gathering successful Wisconsin, displayed information from a Social Security programme called Enumeration Beyond Entry, which indicated that astir 2.1 cardinal migrants were fixed Social Security numbers successful fiscal twelvemonth 2024 alone.

That fig was a crisp summation from the 590,000 noncitizens who received Social Security numbers successful fiscal twelvemonth 2022 and the 964,000 who received them successful 2023, EBE information showed. The Trump medication estimates that 11 cardinal immigrants who crossed the borderline illegally are presently surviving successful the U.S.

Musk and task capitalist Antonio Gracias, who has been assisting the Department of Government Efficiency successful examining the Social Security Administration, assertion that the free-wheeling quality of however Social Security numbers are reportedly being fixed to migrants is an illustration of fraudulent enactment wrong the SSA.

“This virtually blew america away,” Gracias said astatine the municipality hall. “We went determination to find fraud, and we recovered this by accident.”

How migrants get Social Security numbers

The Social Security Administration reports that, successful general, lone noncitizens who are authorized by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to enactment successful the United States are eligible to person Social Security numbers.

Once authorized to legally enactment successful the U.S., migrants are eligible to use for a Social Security card. However, the bureau stipulates that for non-U.S. citizens to person Supplemental Security Income, they indispensable person been granted a definite classification by the Department of Homeland Security.

Those classifications see being legally admitted into the state arsenic a imperishable resident, granted conditional introduction oregon asylum, paroled into the United States oregon admitted arsenic a refugee.

However, Gracias alleged Sunday that migrants were fixed Social Security numbers automatically done the message without being interviewed oregon being required to amusement recognition aft applying for and receiving a enactment permit.

The EBE programme that distributes Social Security numbers to migrants with enactment authorizations began successful 2017 during President Donald Trump’s archetypal White House term. The inaugural was established arsenic a concern betwixt the SSA and DHS to assistance the SSA successful efficiently issuing Social Security numbers to migrants who were deemed eligible.

The SSA’s inspector wide wrote successful 2019 that the programme allowed Homeland Security to vet the ineligible presumption of migrants who were eligible to enactment and past automatically contented them with Social Security numbers. As portion of the process, migrants seeking Social Security numbers were required to supply impervious of their ineligible status.

A SSA spokesperson did not instantly respond to an email from NewsNation seeking remark astir the claims oregon the EBE information Thursday.

Musk claims migrant Social Security benefits are 'massive' Biden program

Musk said Sunday the issuance of the Social Security numbers was portion of a “massive large-scale program" by the Biden medication to “import arsenic galore illegals arsenic possible, yet to alteration the full voting representation of the United States and disenfranchise the American radical and marque it a imperishable heavy bluish one-party strategy from which determination would beryllium nary escape.”

Gracias added that migrants who received Social Security numbers were receiving “max benefits” and that the noncitizens who were issued the Social Security numbers were utilizing them to registry to vote. The claims came aft Musk antecedently alleged that Social Security benefits had been paid to tens of millions of people who had died.

However, contempt the maturation successful caller years of migrants who were provided with Social Security numbers, a 2023 authorities audit cited by The Washington Post stated that the SSA correctly processed cases for noncitizens to beryllium issued Social Security numbers 99.8% of the time.

Experts, specified arsenic erstwhile SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley, told Rolling Stone that the summation successful Social Security numbers being issued to migrants was “inevitable” owed to erstwhile President Joe Biden’s policies regarding lawfully admitted immigrants astatine the U.S. confederate border.

How moving migrants wage into Social Security

A 2024 investigation conducted by the Institute connected Taxation and Economic Policy showed that migrants paid $96.7 cardinal into federal, authorities and section taxes successful 2022. The migrant employees who person been issued enactment permits besides paid $25.7 cardinal successful Social Security taxes and $6.4 cardinal successful Medicare taxes during the aforesaid year, although, successful astir cases, they are not eligible to person benefits from national agencies.

As Trump has vowed to halt the travel of migrants entering the state illegally, ITEP recovered that providing entree to enactment authorizations to each migrants would summation their taxation contributions from $40.2 cardinal per twelvemonth to $136.9 billion. More than $33 cardinal of the quality would spell to the national government, the survey found,