Despite wanting to slash Social Security by raising the age of eligibility (a special hardship for constituents working physically demanding jobs), Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline is now posing as a champion of the program.
How is he doing that?
In his weekly newsletter, under the heading Protecting Social Security for American Citizens, Cline wrote:
Many folks across the Sixth District have expressed frustration that illegal immigrants are receiving benefits meant for American citizens.
I suspect that many more folks across the Sixth District have expressed – via thousands of phone calls and emails to Cline – their opposition to the Trump-Musk wrecking-ball approach to federal programs, as well as Cline’s refusal to meet in person with his constituents at town hall meetings. But Cline doesn’t think that’s worth mentioning.
Cline asserted:
Under the Biden administration, more than 2 million Social Security numbers were issued to illegal immigrants in 2024. That gave them access to taxpayer-funded benefits that should go to American workers and families. These programs were never meant to serve those who entered this country illegally.
False. The Social Security numbers were issued to non-citizens authorized to legally work in the U.S. under a program called Enumeration Beyond Entry.
As NewsNation explains:
The EBE program that distributes Social Security numbers to migrants with work authorizations began in 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first White House term. The initiative was established as a partnership between the SSA and DHS to assist the SSA in efficiently issuing Social Security numbers to migrants who were deemed eligible.
The SSA’s inspector general wrote in 2019 that the program allowed Homeland Security to vet the legal status of migrants who were eligible to work and then automatically issue them with Social Security numbers. As part of the process, migrants seeking Social Security numbers were required to provide proof of their legal status.
Non-citizens are entitled to receive Social Security benefits only under limited circumstances:
- Being legally admitted into the country as a permanent resident
- Granted conditional entry or asylum
- Paroled into the U.S. or admitted as a refugee
A 2024 analysis conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion into federal, state and local taxes in 2022. The undocumented migrant employees who have been issued work permits also paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes and $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes during the same year, although, in most cases, those undocumented workers are not eligible to receive benefits from federal agencies.
Far from receiving benefits to which they aren’t entitled, undocumented workers are paying taxes for benefits they will likely never receive.
But that simple truth doesn’t fit with Cline’s obsessive need to focus on the alleged dangers posed by undocumented migrants above any and all other pressing issues.
Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.
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