We’ll kick off the new week with a story that’s sure to warm your hearts. Since the introduction of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, many questions have been raised about not only the legality of the proposal, but how such a limited amnesty program would affect additional crimes committed by illegal aliens prior to their acceptance in the program. The Daily Caller has obtained a memo from 2014 where one big question may be answered. When illegals are using a fraudulently obtained Social Security number to work, what happens to the money which the employer withholds from their paychecks, particularly their S.S. benefits deductions? Well, at least in some cases it looks like they’ll just have the cash transferred over to their new, “legitimate” Social Security number.
Under President Obama’s rule, illegal immigrants will be eligible for Social Security payments — and they’ll be credited for the time they’ve been working illegally, in some cases.
Obama’s executive actions — according to a Congressional Research Service memo sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obtained by The Daily Caller — will permit illegals who qualify for the president’s program to earn Social Security payments.
“Under the November 20, 2014, policy memorandum, foreign nationals who receive deferred action status may be eligible for work authorization,” the CRS memo states. “As a result, a foreign national who receives deferred action status may be able to have all of his or her Social Security-covered earnings count toward qualifying for a Social Security benefit (all earnings from authorized and unauthorized work).”
That’s nice how they phrase it as unauthorized work, isn’t it? Of course there are those who choose other descriptions for any activity which includes the fraudulent use of another person’s Social Security number. For one example, the Department of Justice refers to it as Identity Theft / Identity Fraud. Such cases are defined as the use of “your personal data especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number… to personally profit at your expense.”
What qualifies as personally profiting at your expense? The ability to obtain a job and a regular paycheck, as well as the retirement, disability and survivor payments available through the Social Security System by tricking an employer into hiring you certainly sounds like profiting, doesn’t it? But even the courts have balked at calling it a crime in some cases, particularly if the charge is criminal impersonation. Still, the work was performed and the deductions taken while the illegal alien was not under the protection of DACA or any other program. This goes beyond the idea of amnesty for the crime of being in the country illegally and crosses over into the realm of rewarding bad behavior.
Some amnesty advocates are concerned that it may be too confusing to transfer the funds over to the illegal immigrant’s new Social Security number.
“[I]t is unclear how easy it will be for a foreign national to prove that earnings credited to a Social Security number that was not issued to the foreign national (i.e., credits earned while the person was working without authorization) belong on his or her earnings record,” the memo states.
Illegal immigrants covered by Obama’s executive actions are receiving new social security numbers.
This sounds like something out of a dystopian future novel. If you write a series of rubber checks and later get some money in your account to write a few good ones, should we simply forget about the previous incidents of check fraud? Progressives frequently balk when conservatives describe Barack Obama’s policies as “amnesty.” If this isn’t essentially a full pardon I’ve yet to see one.
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