Speech #1090133561

President. I rise in strong opposition to the Ensign amendment. Under current law. undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Social Security benefits which I think is entirely appropriate. But we all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy. According to Stephen Goss. the Social Security Administrations chief actuary. threequarters of illegal immigrants pay payroll taxes. These payments generate approximately $8.5 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes each year. In fact. according to a 2005 New York Times article. the Social Security Administration records these payments in a socalled earnings suspense file. which grew by $189 billion in the 1990s and continues to grow by over $50 billion each year. generating up to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. According to the article. most of these payments come from illegal immigrants. The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our country. If this amendment is enacted. the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families. It pains me to disagree with my good friend from Nevada on this matter. but I believe the amendment is wrong. It is fundamentally unfair to collect taxes from these workers and then disqualify the taxes paid once the workers achieve legal taxes. I believe instead of supporting the amendment. we should stand for the principle that people who worked and paid into the Social Security system for years should be able to depend on their retirement income to which they contributed. The amendment compounds the unfairness by ignoring the underlying legislation that already calls for payment of all back taxes and a $2.000 fine. So what we are asking the immigrants to do is pay all back taxes and. at the same time. forgo the taxes they already paid into the Social Security trust fund. It is fundamentally unfair.