Should Anyone Who Pays Taxes Be Entitled to Retirement Benefits?
Written by
Adam Palasciano
Edited by
Nicholas Morine
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Everyone who works in the U.S. has to pay taxes — it’s a part of life that’s unavoidable. Both workers with legal status and undocumented immigrants are held to the same standard. The only difference between workers with legal status and undocumented immigrants is that the latter group doesn’t see any of the retirement benefits from their tax contributions.
The Wall Street Journal reported there’s a growing number of undocumented migrants living in the U.S. who contribute tax revenue to Social Security and Medicare, but aren’t eligible for these benefits once they retire.
The majority of this baby boomer generation of undocumented immigrants have no retirement savings cushion and are expected to burden available community services and lean on any government assistance they can get access to.
Today, there’s a debate about whether anyone who pays taxes, regardless of legal status, should be eligible for retirement benefits like Social Security and Medicare.
The Share of Undocumented Immigrant Workers Is Growing
Recent data from the Pew Research Center highlighted that 4.6% of U.S. workers in 2021 were unauthorized immigrants.
To further put this into perspective, the number of undocumented immigrants who were 65 or older in 2022 topped 99,000. This figure is expected to grow in the coming years if current immigration trends continue.
So, should these tax-paying individuals be entitled to retirement benefits regardless of legal status? Here’s what some experts have to say.
There Are Differing Opinions on Whether Undocumented Immigrants Should Receive Retirement Benefits
While the number of unauthorized immigrants makes up only about 5% of the U.S. working population, the Social Security Administration indicated that the net contributions of working undocumented immigrants to the Social Security Administration totaled a whopping $12 billion in cash flow to the program since 2010.
Some states such as Illinois, Colorado, and California provide healthcare services such as Medicare to low-income seniors who are undocumented immigrants. But, this policy isn’t a national standard.
Most undocumented immigrants nationwide are forced to work until they’re physically unable to continue. A prominent pro-immigrant organization, the National Hispanic Council on Aging, believes that this is simply unjust.
“After giving the best of themselves to this country and to their families, there isn’t anything to help them,” explained Yanira Cruz, president of the National Hispanic Council on Aging, to The Wall Street Journal.
Immigration advocates such as Cruz argue that people who have worked and lived in the U.S. for decades deserve some government assistance in their older years, regardless of their legal status.
Meanwhile, advocates of stricter immigration laws say that undocumented immigrant workers don’t deserve benefits, even if they contribute to Social Security and Medicare taxes. Robert Rector — a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank — also spoke out.
“Throughout the course of their life, they’re [undocumented immigrants] going to be receiving more benefits than they’re paying in taxes,” said Rector. He argued that the benefits undocumented immigrant workers receive before retirement — such as access to public education for their children as well as taxpayer-funded emergency services — more than make up for a lack of government-funded retirement benefits.
Retirement benefits for undocumented immigrant workers remain a contentious political issue and it’s unclear whether current policy will change or not.
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