Another Social Security Secret

[Delphine]

SOCIAL SECURITY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS?


I heard this on the Neil Boortz show on January 4. As far as I know, no other media has picked it up. I wondered if anyone else was aware of it.

It has to do with illegal and (I suppose legal) aliens collecting Social Security benefits with smaller time qualifications than United States citizens. The document is ready for President Bush to sign. This is to be done WITHOUT a Congressional vote. Either House then has 60 days to reject it.

I don't understand this type of governing.

Simply put:
A (US citizen) worker who turns 62 after 1990 generally needs 40 calendar quarters of coverage to receive retirement benefits.

Under Totalization Agreements, workers (illegal aliens given amnesty) are allowed to combine earnings from both countries in order to qualify for benefits.

The Agreement with Mexico, like other totalization agreements, would allow workers to qualify with just six quarters, or 18 months, of U.S. coverage.

I copied some information below, but you might want to go to
http://www.tscl.org/index.asp the website for TREA Senior Citizens League, who broke the story. There is a petition there.


SOCIAL SECURITY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS?
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com

An agreement the Bush administration reached with Mexico on Social Security
benefits would allow illegal aliens granted amnesty in the future to claim credit for the time they worked illegally.

The deal was reached in 2004 but never released publicly because it hasn't been submitted to Congress.

The TREA Senior Citizens League, a Social Security advocacy group, recently obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act, and said it confirms the group's worst fears.



Washington Times
January 4, 2006

Washington Times Article excerpts

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is
awaiting President Bush's signature. Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without Congressional vote, either House of Congress would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.

"The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within
decades of bankruptcy – yet, they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise," said Ralph McCutchen, Chairman of the TREA Senior Citizens League. "Our 1.2 million elderly members didn't sacrifice through difficult times so we could fund millions of workers who crossed the border and decided to work here illegally."

The U.S. currently has 21 similar agreements in effect with other nations, which are intended to eliminate dual taxation for persons who work outside their country of origin. All of the agreements are with developed nations with economies similar to that of the U.S.

But Mexico's retirement system is radically different than that of other participating countries. For example, only 40 percent of non-government workers participate in Mexico's system, whereas 96 percent of America's non-government workers do. In addition, the U.S. system is progressive, meaning lower wage earners get back much more than they put in; in Mexico, workers get back only what they put in, plus accrued interest.

"I applaud the persistent efforts of TREA Senior Citizens League to try to get
documents from the U.S. Government about the U.S.-Mexico Social Security
Totalization Agreement," said Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). "The American people are finally beginning to get some of the information regarding this Agreement that they have been seeking for so long."

According to the Social Security Administration, the Social Security Trust Fund (???????) will begin paying out more than it is taking in by 2017, and will be exhausted by the year 2040.

[loner]

Thank you, el Presidente Shrubbero. You have once again given your country a prime example as to just why retroactive abortions should be legal.

[Topper]

Suddenly I'm reminded of the Azetic ... they had a society where they took what they needed, killing anyone who got in there way. Montazooooma's revenge is here.

[lastconundrum]

I can't believe anyone in government could be this stupid. Is this a deliberate plan to bankrupt the system? :shock: How can anyone benefit?

[Dera]

Citrus freeze leaves thousands in California out of work
Updated 1/18/2007 3:28 PM ET

SANGER, Calif. (AP) — The deep freeze that has destroyed some $1 billion worth of California citrus could also mean months of unemployment for thousands of farmworkers, packers and truck drivers during what is already a lean season for those who work in agriculture, industry officials say.

The bad news was already trickling in Wednesday at Harris Farms, a 7,000-acre operation about 25 miles east of Fresno.

"All of my sisters-in-law, my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law just got laid off from the packing sheds," said Valentino Mexicano, a ranch hand whose family of five lives in nearby Sanger. He and other members of the farm's night crew were just getting off a 15-hour shift monitoring miles of orange and lemon trees.

"It's bad," he said. "People are just going to be looking for little jobs to survive because the bills won't wait."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state would offer assistance to all affected laborers, regardless of their immigration status.

"Everyone will get help," he said Tuesday. "We are not here collecting immigration statuses."

The governor's press secretary, Aaron McLear, elaborated on the governor's comment Wednesday, saying the promised assistance included food programs, temporary housing, low-income energy assistance and other social services — but not unemployment insurance.

Applicants must prove they can work legally in the United States to qualify for state unemployment insurance or federal disaster unemployment assistance, said Jehan Flagg, a spokeswoman for the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency.

Some 12,500 workers are directly employed in the citrus industry in California's San Joaquin Valley. Hundreds more truckers carry the fruit to docks to be shipped around the world.

In winter months, the citrus industry provides thousands of jobs in Fresno County, which employs more farmworkers than any other California county, according to federal statistics. But even during a normal year, about 40% of farmworkers in the county risk going hungry during the winter, according to the California Institute for Rural Studies.

"For many farmworkers, working in citrus provides the money needed to pay rent and buy food," said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farmworkers of America. "You could find a job at a packing shed, but if you're not harvesting you're not packing either, there are really very few options."

Schwarzenegger has asked the federal government for disaster aid following a string of subfreezing nights in the Central Valley's orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit groves.

Workers displaced by the freeze can apply for state unemployment insurance, which pays up to $450 per week for 26 weeks over a one-year period, Flagg said.

If President Bush approves Schwarzenegger's request and declares a state of emergency, those affected by the freeze could qualify for additional federal unemployment aid.

Mexicano's job is safe because Harris Farms employs its 20 full-time workers year-round to prune grape and olive trees, repair machinery and round up cattle that escape from grazing grounds in the Sierra Nevada foothills, Manager Rod Radtke said. But in nearby Woodlake, the freeze has already forced Sun Pacific Shippers Inc. to lay off its entire staff of 70 citrus packers, graders and shippers.

"It's not like a hurricane that damages material things, but the freeze damages people's livelihood," said manager Frank Martinez. "With this going on there's no hope. Unemployment just isn't enough for people to keep up with their utilities and their mortgage payments."

Joel Nelsen, who heads the 2,000-member trade organization California Citrus Mutual, said he expects many citrus workers will look for odd jobs to make it through the winter. But under current law, workers can only earn up to $25 a week before their unemployment benefits are reduced.

Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado said he plans to introduce a bill that would give California's farmworkers the chance to earn up to $200 a week without having their unemployment benefits cut.

At Harris Farms, where ice crystals hung from rows of navel orange trees, this year's harvest will last only through April, instead of September, Radtke said.

About 70% of the citrus crop was damaged since the freeze began Friday, and the company will likely contract for fewer pickers to harvest the undamaged fruit, Radtke said.

Shippers in the San Joaquin Valley said Wednesday it was too soon to tell how the losses would impact their business, but said the outlook wasn't good.

The trucking industry won't be able to gauge the hit from the freeze for another week, when truckers will start to get a sense of the demand for their loads, said Julie Sauls, a spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association.

"We do expect products to become short and more expensive," said Chuck Aiello, a buyer with FreshKo Produce Service, a Fresno-based wholesale citrus distributor. "It'll be inevitable that our company to feel it. Everyone will."