Something changed since then.
IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.
Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.
The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.
In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.
Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of illegal immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant.
"Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for illegal immigration.
Other researchers say illegal immigrants are the main contributors to the suspense file. "Illegal immigrants account for the vast majority of the suspense file," said Nick Theodore, the director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Especially its growth over the 1990's, as more and more undocumented immigrants entered the work force."
Using data from the Census Bureau's current population survey, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, an advocacy group in Washington that favors more limits on immigration, estimated that 3.8 million households headed by illegal immigrants generated $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes in 2002.
That's because those tax returns are fraudulent. I should know I uncovered several of those phoney refund tax return schemes, ALL of them perpetrated by hispanics, during the time I worked for the IRS. (Though I know those schemes were not the exclusive domain of hispanics) I would venture a guess the FICA and withholding taxes on those W-2's was never actually paid--it's imaginary money--monopoly money. Just look at the increase in delinquent taxes on the IRS's books--who do you think owes it?
The IRS hasn't been able to match W-2 and withholding tax returns on a current basis until just very recently. They were always at least 3 years behind in the decade and a half I personally witnessed. BTW, if the SSN's are bogus, they can't be tracked to an employer, and the employers probably don't exist either.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.
Even if true this means we could buy about 24 F-16's a year with this money, if it existed. Hardly a net gain when you should subtract out the social costs imposed by the illegals.
Using data from the Census Bureau's current population survey, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, an advocacy group in Washington that favors more limits on immigration, estimated that 3.8 million households headed by illegal immigrants generated $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes in 2002.
In other words, a SWAG. Not scientific or accurate enough to crow about. I know some illegals contribute to the tax base (sort of) because I do the accounting for a restaurant chain that employes about 1,800 people, a good many of them hispanic, and I'm sure some of them are illegal. But I don't feel sorry for these people, they're averaging $10 an hour flipping burgers. When I was 17 I did it for $1.10 an hour. Even if I consult the Census Bureau's database I won't be able to tell how many of them are or aren't filing their tax returns.
My point is, even if all the money in the Suspense fund is real, and the illegals were responsible for ALL of it, it still does not offset the costs they impose on our society.