WASHINGTON (By Billy House, Arizona Republic) June 26, 2005 - The House on Friday adopted, with no objections, a measure sponsored by Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., to block Social Security payments for possibly millions of undocumented immigrant workers in the United States.
"I am proud that a unified House stood with me to declare our determination that illegal aliens will not plunder Social Security funds that are intended solely for retired and disabled Americans," Hayworth said in a statement.
The Hayworth language, attached to the spending bill for the federal departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, and related agencies, prohibits the Social Security Administration from using any of the bill's funding for benefit payments under a totalization agreement with Mexico that are "inconsistent with the U.S. law that bars such payments to illegal aliens."
A totalization agreement eliminates the need to pay Social Security taxes in both countries when U.S. companies send workers to the other country (and vice versa) and protects benefit eligibility for workers who divide their careers between the two countries.
