Promises for mass amnesty contained in the 2024 Democrat Party platform and floated by Kamala Harris herself mean that millions of illegal aliens could soon be eligible for these programs which are already facing insolvency, threatening to destroy them virtually overnight. Donald Trump has been talking about this issue for months, but the all-in-for-Harris “news” media, sensing the kind of political damage the issue could do Democrats, won’t give it air time.
But now AMAC President and CEO Rebecca Weber the head of a conservative senior organization that recognizes how mass amnesty would destroy the Social Security and Medicare programs that its members depend on, may have come up with a way to focus national attention on the problem and force every member of Congress to take a stand.
Just as earlier this year the House of Representatives voted to ensure illegal aliens do not obtain access to the ballot box, Weber has urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in a letter this week to pass legislation denying illegal aliens from the Biden-Harris border invasion eligibility for taxpayer-funded Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Weber’s correspondence is part of a broader push among conservatives, most noticeably led by former President Donald Trump but also involving members of Congress such as Rep. Jeff Duncan, to protect Social Security and Medicare as the programs face a looming crisis from the flood of more than 10 million illegal aliens who have entered the country under the Biden-Harris administration.
As Weber points out in her letter, Democrats’ plans for mass amnesty mean that every illegal alien who has entered the country under the Biden-Harris administration could become eligible for Social Security and Medicare. “Such a development would present an existential threat to these programs, which are already facing insolvency,” Weber writes.
“The mass amnesty programs proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris and explicitly outlined in this year’s Democrat Party platform would mean that Social Security and Medicare would suddenly be burdened by millions of new beneficiaries who would be net drains on the system.”
Thus, while the threat to election integrity from noncitizens voting has already become a well-worn topic this election cycle, the prospect of illegal aliens bankrupting Social Security and Medicare could become a serious political dilemma for Democrats. Americans will undoubtedly not take kindly to liberal politicians flooding the country with illegal aliens they can give amnesty to in order to boost Democrat Party voter rolls and increase dependency on the federal government by adding huge new numbers to entitlement programs.
The dilemma now facing Democrats is similar to one they faced in the heat of the 2008 presidential election, when Republican nominee John McCain, at the urging of Newt Gingrich and House Republicans, began a “drill here, drill now” campaign to hammer Barack Obama’s opposition to offshore drilling as a threat to U.S. energy independence. The issue helped thrust McCain into the lead in September before the stock market crash changed the dynamic of the race. Crucially, the political pressure exerted by Republicans forced congressional Democrats to do a complete 180 and vote to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling.
With Election Day now just over two months away, Republicans may have the right political environment to pressure enough Democrats to pass the legislation that Weber outlines. At the very least, every Democrat will have to go on record declaring whether or not they support allowing illegal aliens to receive Social Security and Medicare.
Democrats included as part of their official 2024 platform support for the U.S. Citizenship Act. This radical bill would, among other disastrous provisions, create the new status of “lawful prospective immigrant” which would apply to virtually everyone who enters the country illegally. It’s mass amnesty, plain and simple – and brings with it the promise of voting rights and access to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Social Security is already projected to become insolvent by 2033, while Medicare Part A is on pace to go bankrupt by 2036. Adding millions of new beneficiaries, most of whom would be a net drain on the program, would, as Weber writes, “dramatically speed up these timelines.” The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that mass amnesty for 10 million illegal aliens would cost the programs $1.3 trillion. A separate study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform has found that, if illegal aliens are granted amnesty and eligibility for Social Security and Medicare, they could expect to receive benefits worth on average as much as 140 percent of what they paid into the programs.
If Kamala Harris wins the White House, the number of illegal aliens on government benefits could soon be exponentially larger than even 10 million. Some immigration experts believe another four years with a Democrat in the White House could result in as many as 20 million more illegal aliens coming across the border. Promises of amnesty, voting rights, and government benefits would only encourage people to make the journey.
Even if Congress doesn’t pass the U.S. Citizenship Act, a President Kamala Harris would have plenty of executive authorities at her disposal with which to enact a piecemeal approach to mass amnesty. Joe Biden has already used the president’s parole authority to put more than two million illegal aliens on the path to amnesty in 2022 and 2023 alone. Presidents Obama and Trump, for reference, paroled about 5,600 migrants per year on average.
The Biden-Harris administration also recently announced a “parole in place” program for the illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens – a policy of dubious legality which could result in more than one million illegal aliens getting green cards. Another potentially illegal extension of Temporary Protected Status has granted millions of illegal aliens access to work permits, Social Security numbers, and driver’s licenses. Within five years, all of these “qualified aliens” can become eligible for every welfare program, including Social Security and Medicare.
While the outcome of the presidential election and battle for control of Congress is uncertain, House Republicans can, as Weber says, act now to “swiftly pass legislation making anyone who has ever crossed our borders illegally permanently ineligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits.”
“This new eligibility requirement,” she continues, “will act as a vital safeguard on the hard-earned benefits of American citizens that are now threatened by unchecked mass illegal immigration.”
When House Republicans passed the SAVE Act earlier this summer, they exposed Democrats’ support for allowing noncitizens to vote. Now, they have a prime opportunity to do the same thing when it comes to providing Social Security and Medicare benefits for individuals who willfully broke American immigration law as their first official act in this country.
By going on record and putting the interests of illegal aliens over the needs of American citizens, vulnerable Democrat incumbents will open themselves up to withering attack ads that could make the difference this November.
Now, it is up to House Republicans to act.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.