Social Security to include Mexicans?

WHITE HOUSE and Mexican government officials say discussions on an agreement to align the Social Security systems of the two countries are informal and preliminary. But excerpts from an internal Social Security Administration memo obtained this month says the agreement “is expected to move forward at an accelerated pace,” with the support of both governments, and could be in force by next October.

The pact would be the latest, but by far the largest, of a series of treaties designed to ensure that workers from one country working in another aren’t taxed by both nations’ social security systems. In its first year, the agreement is projected to trigger 37,000 new claims from Mexicans who had worked in the United States legally, paid Social Security taxes but have been unable to claim their checks, according to a memo prepared by Ted Girdner, the Social Security Administration’s assistant associate commissioner for international operations.

If the new beneficiaries in Mexico received payments roughly equal to the average $8,100 benefit that Mexican-born retirees in the United States now receive, the total would easily surpass $1 billion a year, said Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan research organization. And even that number could seriously underestimate the number of Mexicans who would seek Social Security benefits, if not qualify for them, he said.

“How can [the U.S. government] say this is too costly?” asked Maria Blanco, national senior counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “This is money these workers paid into the Social Security system. This is their money.”