Illegal immigration and Social Security/Medicare

In a previous post, I mentioned an effective way to curtail illegal immigration—require all employees to be screened through E-Verify—and some reasons why it won’t be adopted. Another disincentive to deterring illegal immigration is that it subsidizes Social Security and Medicare:

“ . . . illegal immigrants as a group are net contributors who partially pay into the trust funds while receiving little in return, but amnesty would transform them into net drains who receive more in benefits than they contribute in taxes. CIS has estimated the per-recipient cost of this dramatic change in status to be $129,000 in present value. If 10 million illegal immigrants receive amnesty, the total cost to Social Security and Medicare would be roughly $1.3 trillion, equivalent to a one-time transfer of 6 percent of GDP.”

I doubt this subsidy is much on the minds of those who prefer the status quo and peformative political posturing over real solutions to illegal immigration, but it is another disincentive to solving the problem. 

https://cis.org/Report/Impact-Immigration-Social-Security-and-Medicare-Conceptual-Primer?__cf_chl_rt_tk=JqYHVn4eSvJR.f3FqDQqZ3nhOAfqB_G7ExfkqjdEkA8-1699089828-0-gaNycGzNE6U

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