Latest news with #EnumerationBeyondEntry
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Millions of legal immigrants' lives upended after social security freeze
Millions of legal immigrants may be left unable to work after the US Social Security Administration quietly instituted a rule change to stop automatically issuing them social security numbers. The Enumeration Beyond Entry program is an agreement between the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, where US Citizenship and Immigration Services would provide social security with information from applicants for work authorization or naturalization. The program began in 2017 under the first Trump administration. Without any public notice, on 19 March, the program was halted, affecting millions of immigrants every year and burdening Social Security Administration offices, as those applicants will now have to visit a Social Security Administration office and apply separately to receive a social security number. Following the freeze, the Trump administration issued a memo on 15 April aimed at preventing undocumented immigrants from receiving social security benefits, but provided no evidence of it being a problem. Trump and Elon Musk, billionaire former leader of the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) have falsely claimed these programs are being used to attract unauthorized immigrants to vote for Democrats. 'Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for Medicare or social security retirement benefits. Nor does any evidence exist that unauthorized immigrants fraudulently receive benefits in large numbers,' wrote Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, an economics professor at Boston College, in a blogpost. Lee Thacker moved to south-west Minnesota last summer with his now wife, a native of the US. After getting married, he applied for a work authorization card while his permanent residency application was being processed. When the 52-year-old from Pontypridd in Wales received his work authorization card at the end of April 2025, he began applying for jobs and received a job offer. After he failed to receive his social security number, 'I lost the job,' said Thacker. 'I needed a background check and the company doing the check required a social security number, and the company itself has a policy of not employing people without social security numbers. So I am legally entitled to work, but in practice I can't because no one will employ me without a social security number.' He noted the work authorization form, I-765, still has a checkbox on it to fill out to receive a social security number card, which he did. He paid $260 for the employment authorization card application and was expecting to receive a social security number within two weeks of receiving his work authorization card. Thacker was not informed why until he visited a Social Security Administration field office about half an hour away, where he was informed about the change. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $25.7bn in taxes to social security, despite not being eligible to receive the benefits. 'It's definitely affected a lot of individuals. We've tried to warn all of our clients,' said Jennifer Bade, an immigration lawyer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Bade explained the issues and difficulties immigrants face in visiting a Social Security Administration field office, including having to take time off work, language barriers, and issues and delays for immigrants who need a social security number to start a job, open a bank account, or receive a loan. 'The pausing of this program makes no sense,' added Bade. 'It's all just meant to attack immigrants, and it has no actual benefits. Pausing this program literally has no benefits.' Democrats on the House committee on oversight and government reform urged the Social Security Administration to reverse its decision to freeze the program. According to the then ranking member of the committee, the late congressman Gerald Connolly, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration personally approved the pause despite legal concerns and warnings over the effects of pausing the program. Hope Rudasill of North Carolina said her husband, whose name is being kept anonymous for fear of retaliation, recently filed for a work authorization card, but did not expect the delay in receiving a social security number, as he was told it would be issued automatically when he filed his application. 'My husband hasn't been able to start his job search because most employers require a valid social security number before even considering applications. It's also prevented him from applying for a driver's license which limits his ability to get around independently,' Rudasill told the Guardian. 'We haven't been able to open a joint bank account, which is not only inconvenient for managing finances, but also creates challenges when we go to our adjustment of status interview [an essential part of applying for lawful permanent residency] as a shared bank account is a key piece of evidence to prove we're building a life together and not having that documentation makes the process more stressful.' The rule change came as billionaire Musk pushed misinformation about immigrants and social security benefits, including touting data from the Enumeration Beyond Entry program, falsely claiming it was evidence of fraud. In fiscal year 2024, 3.24m initial employment authorization documents were approved by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The costs of issuing a social security number through this program in the same year, according to a Social Security Administration memo, was $8 per issuance, compared with $55.80 in a field office. Those field offices are also operating with reduced staff, as the Social Security Administration sought to cut staff by at least 12%, and Doge has terminated leases for at least 47 offices at the agency. The freeze is likely to add even more pressure to staff at the agency, in addition to new phone restrictions implemented by the Trump administration, which will require individuals to make 1.93m additional trips to social security field offices annually. 'I was hoping I would be able to work within a few months of applying for permanent residency, once I got the employment authorization card,' Lee Thacker added. 'If I had known social security cards were no longer being sent out automatically, I would have made an in-person visit shortly after getting my employment authorization card. There must be many people waiting patiently expecting to receive their social security cards. If this is a permanent change local SSA offices will be receiving more in-person visits at a time when staffing numbers are being reduced.' The US Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Social Security Administration said in an email: 'The Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) process is currently paused for noncitizens granted work authorization (I-765) and newly naturalized US citizens (N-400) for 90 days, while the agency is evaluating its enumeration policies and procedures. SSA will continue to process EBE applications for those granted legal permanent resident status (I-485) along with all EBE applications that were filed prior to March 18, 2025.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How many migrants are receiving Social Security numbers?
(NewsNation) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk is claiming that Social Security numbers were handed out last year to more than 2 million immigrants who entered the United States illegally and that those cards were subsequently used to collect benefits the migrants are not entitled to receive. Musk, speaking at a weekend town hall meeting in Wisconsin, displayed data from a Social Security program called Enumeration Beyond Entry, which indicated that nearly 2.1 million migrants were given Social Security numbers in fiscal year 2024 alone. That figure was a sharp increase from the 590,000 noncitizens who received Social Security numbers in fiscal year 2022 and the 964,000 who received them in 2023, EBE data showed. The Trump administration estimates that 11 million immigrants who crossed the border illegally are currently living in the U.S. Pew Research reported last year that about 8.3 million workers who held jobs in the nation in 2022 were migrants. How to get the most out of your Social Security benefits Musk and venture capitalist Antonio Gracias, who has been assisting the Department of Government Efficiency in examining the Social Security Administration, claim that the free-wheeling nature of how Social Security numbers are reportedly being given to migrants is an example of fraudulent activity within the SSA. 'This literally blew us away,' Gracias said at the town hall. 'We went there to find fraud, and we found this by accident.' The Social Security Administration reports that, in general, only noncitizens who are authorized by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to work in the United States are eligible to receive Social Security numbers. Once authorized to legally work in the U.S., migrants are eligible to apply for a Social Security card. However, the agency stipulates that for non-U.S. citizens to receive Supplemental Security Income, they must have been granted a certain classification by the Department of Homeland Security. Those classifications include being legally admitted into the country as a permanent resident, granted conditional entry or asylum, paroled into the United States or admitted as a refugee. However, Gracias alleged Sunday that migrants were given Social Security numbers automatically through the mail without being interviewed or being required to show identification after applying for and receiving a work permit. Social Security Administration probes origin of website portal outage 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. A SSA spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from NewsNation seeking comment about the claims or the EBE data Thursday. Musk said Sunday the issuance of the Social Security numbers was part of a 'massive large-scale program' by the Biden administration to 'import as many illegals as possible, ultimately to change the entire voting map of the United States and disenfranchise the American people and make it a permanent deep blue one-party system from which there would be no escape.' Gracias added that migrants who received Social Security numbers were receiving 'max benefits' and that the noncitizens who were issued the Social Security numbers were using them to register to vote. The claims came after Musk previously alleged that Social Security benefits had been paid to tens of millions of people who had died. However, despite the growth in recent years of migrants who were provided with Social Security numbers, a 2023 government audit cited by The Washington Post stated that the SSA correctly processed cases for noncitizens to be issued Social Security numbers 99.8% of the time. Appeals court blocks DOGE effort to access Social Security data Experts, such as former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley, told Rolling Stone that the increase in Social Security numbers being issued to migrants was 'inevitable' due to former President Joe Biden's policies regarding lawfully admitted immigrants at the U.S. southern border. A 2024 analysis conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that migrants paid $96.7 billion into federal, state and local taxes in 2022. The 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, they are not eligible to receive benefits from federal agencies. As Trump has vowed to stop the flow of migrants entering the country illegally, ITEP found that providing access to work authorizations to all migrants would increase their tax contributions from $40.2 billion per year to $136.9 billion. More than $33 billion of the difference would go to the federal government, the study found, Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Musk's claim Biden administration gave Social Security numbers to millions of noncitizens lacks context
During an event in Wisconsin on March 30, 2025, tech mogul and government adviser Elon Musk said that the Biden administration had been attempting "to import as many illegals as possible" under the Enumeration Beyond Entry program. EBE is a joint program between U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration. Under the program, USCIS shares information with the SSA to generate Social Security numbers — enumerate — successful applicants for work permits, green cards and citizenship through naturalization. The program started in 2017, during President Donald Trump's first administration. Though SSNs issued under EBE did rise significantly during the Biden administration, the administration also extended the program to include large groups of applicants. The Department of Government Efficiency's SSA operative Antonio Gracias alleged on March 30 that people who were granted Social Security numbers under the EBE program were receiving "max" benefits and voting. It was unclear what evidence, if any, Gracias had for these claims. During a political rally in Wisconsin on March 30, tech mogul Elon Musk — an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump — was joined by billionaire investor and Department of Government Efficiency operative Antonio Gracias to reveal, the pair claimed (archived), a "massive, large-scale program" that issued millions of Social Security numbers to "as many illegals as possible" under the Biden administration. Standing in front of large chart showing the number of SSNs issued under the Enumeration Beyond Entry program in fiscal years 2018 to 2025, Musk told the crowd: People sometimes think that under the Biden administration, that he was simply asleep at the switch. They weren't asleep at the switch — it was a massive, large-scale program to import as many illegals as possible, ultimately to change the entire voting map of the United States and disenfranchise the American people and make it a permanent deep-blue, one-party state from which there would be no escape. Following the event, claims spread across social media including X (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Reddit (archived) that millions of noncitizens or "illegals" got SSNs during the Biden administration. However, Enumeration Beyond Entry, a joint Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services program from which Musk and Gracias took their numbers, issues SSNs only to migrants who have successfully applied for employment authorization, lawful permanent residency or naturalization — also known as the right to work, a green card or citizenship. These groups are, by definition, not "illegal." Most working adults in the U.S. need a Social Security number to link their financial information, such as earnings, to their identity and qualify for Social Security benefits. Musk and Gracias further claimed that people given SSNs under the EBE program were receiving benefits and voting. While a Social Security number does allow the holder to qualify for the SSA's benefits system, it was unclear how having an SSN allowed noncitizens to vote. We reached out to the SSA, USCIS and Office of Homeland Security Statistics to confirm the number of Social Security numbers issued under EBE and shown in Musk and Gracias' chart. We'll update this piece if we receive a response. We also reached out to DOGE for more details on Gracias' claim that people granted SSNs under the program were able to vote and await a reply. According to a 2019 audit report of Enumeration Beyond Entry, the program started in 2017 during the first Trump administration. The EBE streamlined the existing system by allowing the Social Security Administration to use data from specific applications (initially employment authorization and permanent-resident status) received by USCIS to enumerate, or give an SSN to, successful applicants. Before the EBE program, applicants would have to visit an SSA field office or Social Security Card Center in addition to submitting the relevant forms to apply for employment authorization. The SSA's Program Operations Manual System read (guidelines updated in February 2025): EBE is an option for those who applied for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD, Form I-766) and submitted Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization) applied for Permanent Resident Status (Green Card, Form I-551) and submitted Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status); or, applied for a Certificate of Naturalization (form N-550) and submitted Form N-400 (Application for Naturalization). The program issued 82,202 SSNs from Oct. 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, according to the audit report. According to an expanded chart posted (archived) to X by Gracias, this number rose to 350,399 in fiscal year 2019 (October 2018 to September 2019) and 400,621 in FY2020. Musk and Gracias highlighted fiscal year 2024 (October 2023 to September 2024), during Biden's presidency to say that the administration was trying to "import as many illegals as possible." The SSA issued 2,095,247 Social Security numbers through EBE in that fiscal year. However, speaking to Rolling Stone, former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley, who served for much of fiscal year 2024, said the increase in SSNs issued under Biden could be explained by actions taken by the administration to expand the EBE program to more legal immigrants. In April 2024, USCIS announced the EBE program would be expanded to include Form N-400, a form used by groups including lawful permanent residents (commonly known as green Card holders) to apply for naturalization (citizenship). Effectively, the 2024 expansion of EBE to include Form N-400 meant that most adults applying for U.S. citizenship could get their SSN through the program. The Office of Homeland Security Statistics had not yet released naturalization figures for fiscal year 2024 at the time of this writing, so it was not possible to directly compare the rise in SSNs issued under EBE to the number of naturalizations in the same period to evidence O'Malley's claim. Gracias made a series of additional claims about people who got Social Security numbers through EBE. Firstly, he said DOGE found that some of the people who got their SSNs through the program were receiving "max" benefits. Generally, people with SSNs are eligible for Social Security benefits after they earn enough credits, which are based on salary. Gracias said: The defaults in the system, from all of the benefits programs, have been set to max inclusion, max pay for these people. That's what happening. We found 1.3 million of them already on Medicaid. We did not find up-to-date, publicly available data to support this claim. Gracias also claimed that DOGE had found names of several people who were issued a Social Security number under EBE and went on to vote. It was unclear how this was possible, as noncitizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote without becoming U.S. citizens, except in some local elections. A possible explanation could be that applicants who used Form N-400 to apply for naturalization and an SSN at the same time would be citizens upon successful application and thus able to vote. We reached out to Gracias through DOGE's X account and his company, Valor Equity Partners, for further comment. Benefits Planner | Social Security Credits and Benefit Eligibility | SSA. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025. Ennis, Gail S. Multiple Social Security Numbers Assigned to Non-Citizens Using the Enumeration Beyond Entry Program . Office of the Inspector General Social Security Administration, 17 Dec. 2019, Glawe, Justin. "Musk Blames Dems for Trump Giving Immigrants Social Security Numbers." Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2025, Kelly, Makena. "These Are the 10 DOGE Operatives Inside the Social Security Administration." Wired. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025. New Citizens Will Be Able to Seamlessly Request Social Security Updates | USCIS. 28 Mar. 2024, Social Security History: Martin O'Malley. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025. SSA - POMS: RM 10205.700 - Enumeration-Beyond-Entry (EBE) - 02/10/2025. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025. "The Story of the Social Security Number." Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis, Accessed 1 Apr. 2025. Who Can and Cannot Vote | USAGov. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Social Security will stop mailing cards to 3 million people, report says. It could cause chaos at field offices.
The Social Security Administration has frozen a program that automatically processes Social Security cards and sends them through the mail for certain people, such as newly naturalized U.S. citizens and noncitizens granted work authorization, a newsletter reported on Thursday. The change, which could affect millions of workers, will force those people to visit field offices that are already overcrowded and understaffed. This program — which operates under an agreement between the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and is known as Enumeration Beyond Entry — has been 'temporarily' frozen for 'noncitizens granted work authorization' and 'newly naturalized U.S. citizens,' according to the Popular Information newsletter, and it is unknown how long the freeze will be in place or if it will ever be lifted. Individuals granted permanent residence status are also covered under the EBE program but were exempted from the freeze, the newsletter reported. 'In their last days, our parents changed their will': They left me $250,000, but gave my sister $1 million. What should I do? 'I'll retire when I'm dead': My 401(k) lost $50,000 in the market turmoil. I'm in my early 40s. What should I do now? My stepmother inherited 100% of my father's estate. She's leaving everything to her two kids. Is that fair? 'They hate our generation': My son and daughter-in-law want us to sell our house — and move to Oregon to start a commune My wife and I have $75,000. Should we put it into the S&P 500 or individual stocks? We found stocks with a 20% return. In 2024, USCIS approved initial employment authorization documents for more than 3.24 million people. Without the EBE program, those people will be required to visit a Social Security field office to obtain a Social Security number and card. 'Should the freeze remain in place for more than a few days, 60,000 to 75,000 additional people per week will need to visit a field station to obtain a Social Security number,' the newsletter reported. In an emailed statement in response to questions about whether the program was being halted and why, the SSA said: 'We are monitoring it closely. And we will provide an update as appropriate.' Read: Who can help me with my Social Security problem now that staff and services are being cut? The changes to the program come as the SSA is cutting 7,000 jobs, or 12% of its workforce, which was already at 50-year low in staffing. It is also eliminating six regional offices and closing field offices, while at the same time, in what it describes as an effort to combat identity fraud, requiring people to either verify their identity online or go in person to a field office, rather than using the agency's phone service to complete the process as they were previously able to do. Read: Social Security Administration to cut phone service for direct-deposit transactions The SSA, whose most sensitive data is now being reviewed by the Elon Musk-led entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, already has an average wait time of one month for an in-person appointment, and currently, some people must travel as far as 100 miles to reach their nearest field office, the newsletter said. The EBE program 'improves accuracy and efficiency,' said Kathleen Romig, the director of Social Security and disability policy at the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, in an emailed comment. 'Because it's automatic, the more than three million people who participate each year do not have to visit a Social Security office to get their cards. That frees up SSA's frontline staff to answer calls, take appointments, and process claims from everyone else,' she said. 'Driving over three million more people into SSA's field offices will lead to longer wait times on the phone and in offices for everyone who seeks SSA services,' Romig said. 'Worsening service at SSA will harm retirees, grieving families, and people with disabilities who need benefits; job seekers, newly married women, and others who need replacement cards; victims of identity theft who need assistance; and beneficiaries who need to make updates or have problems.' Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, said the new EBE policy 'will burden millions, while helping exactly no one.' 'It will do nothing to reduce fraud, and indeed, will create duplication and waste,' she said. 'The main effect will be to overwhelm the Social Security field offices and create longer wait times for everyone. This makes no sense — unless the real goal is to break our Social Security system.' Investors face one last test this week: Friday's $4.7 trillion 'triple-witching' options expiration As stocks wobble, these two rarely noticed measures say valuations are stretched America's job market is eerily similar to the 1990s dot-com bubble — and, yes, it's a worry I'm 63 and planning to retire. I watched in horror as the markets tanked. Will I have enough to get me to my 90s? 9 quality bank stocks most likely to rise as much as 45% after recent market declines
