A group of U.S. congressmen wants illegal immigrants permanently barred from seeking to reclaim tens of billions of dollars they paid into the Social Security system. The cash instead would go to help U.S. citizens.

MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - For the 14 years he worked as an immigrant in the United States, Carmelo Rivera saw up to $30 deducted each week from the $300 to $500 he earned as a vineyard worker. The deductions were supposed to pay for his retirement.
But like millions of other Mexicans who worked under false Social Security numbers, he is unlikely to get a penny of it.

If a group of U.S. congressmen has its way, such immigrants would be permanently barred from seeking to reclaim tens of billions of dollars they paid into Social Security.

Instead, the money would go to fund American citizens' retirements.

Neither migrants nor their government appear to be fighting the issue, despite what's at stake: a little-known Social Security account, the earnings suspense file, which grows at a rate of about $6 billion a year and stands at about $376 billion.

The account is sort of a catchall for mismatched names and numbers, but is funded mostly by immigrants, many of whom don't know the money exists.

Some see it as the price of working in America.

"People work under made-up (Social Security) numbers because they don't have any choice," said Rivera, 34, of southern Oaxaca state.

As for lost funds - the only retirement savings for him and his wife - "that's just something you take in stride. It's part of the cost of the rules they have."

Many migrants are unaware they can get credit for past contributions, even if made under false numbers, if they later obtain legal residency and present receipts or pay stubs.

"It's not very common and it is not necessarily very easy," said Mark Hinkle, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration in Washington.

Juan Jose Nino Tejedor, who heads the immigrant affairs office for the Mexican state of Veracruz, said he doesn't know of a single such case.

Kat Rodriguez, coordinating organizer of the Tucson-based human rights group Derechos Humanos, said it is unfair to remove the opportunity for workers to reclaim money they earned from their sweat and labor, even if they submitted false information to the U.S. government to work here.

"It's unethical to want to deny people money that they legitimately worked for," Rodriguez told the Tucson Citizen. "Once somebody is in this country and worked they are entitled to their pay. Regardless of the fact if that person is undocumented, an American employer hired them and they worked."

The Citizen unsuccessfully attempted to reach Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who introduced pending guest worker legislation that includes a path to legalization for illegal immigrant workers.

Kolbe's challenger in the coming Republican primary, Randy Graf, told the Citizen he would support such a bill.

"I guess I would have to agree with it," Graf said. "We've got ways for folks to come into this country to work here legally, and if they violated our immigration laws they are not eligible to work here. It's a pretty simple concept."

Graf said he's not familiar enough with the Social Security Administration to suggest useful spending for the immigrant funds but would look forward to tackling such an issue.

Some migrants like Rivera are afraid of being punished if they admit they worked illegally.

"We try to have as little contact with the authorities in the United States as possible," he said.

Hinkle said privacy rules bar his agency from reporting past visa violations to police.

But some workers are using false names and numbers, making it virtually impossible to ever prove a claim.

As difficult as the process already is, some lawmakers want to make sure no illegal immigrants receive Social Security.

A bill submitted to the House last year by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., would "forbid any Social Security credits for illegal aliens or work (done) in violation of the terms of a visa."

The wages of illegal workers are "illegitimate earnings, and whether some of that money is going into the suspense file is basically irrelevant," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Dan Griswold of the Cato Institute in Washington, a nonprofit public policy research foundation that has worked to promote Social Security privatization, notes that "these people pay into the system, and few ultimately collect anything. These are some of the lowest-paid workers. They deserve to receive some kind of benefit from their contributions."

Griswold notes the migrants' payments are "gravy for Social Security" because the money from the suspense file is eventually rolled into the agency's general fund - where it helps finance pensions for American citizens.

Some funds wind up in the suspense file due to the misspelling of U.S. citizens' names or other administrative errors.

Some of the last estimates on the amount paid into Social Security by illegal immigrants were produced in 1994 by the Washington-based Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research organization.

At the time, the amount was estimated at $2.7 billion a year when there were about 5 million illegal immigrants.

But researcher Jeffrey Passel estimated the migrant number had doubled.

Assuming as Passel's studies did that about half of them work on the books, even at minimum wage their contributions would now total at least $3.35 billion annually. That would be a little more than one-half of 1 percent of the $533.5 billion collected in Social Security tax payments in 2003.

Citizen Staff Writer Luke Turf contributed to this article.