On Tuesday, The Political Insider reported on a set of memos issued by the Department of Homeland Security detailing the agency’s immigration priorities under the Trump administration.
In addition to prioritizing the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted or charged with a crime, President Trump has also pledged to deport illegal immigrants who have abused welfare programs.
This last comes on the heels of a damaging report that found the Social Security Administration paid approximately $1 bullion in benefits to individuals with no Social Security Number (SSN).
NO FILE, NO PROBLEM: $1B in Social Security $$ paid to those with no IDs https://t.co/urcZ8UPULP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 22, 2017
From The Washington Free Beacon:
The agency’s inspector general found errors in the government’s documentation for representative payees, otherwise known as individuals who receive retirement or disability payments on behalf of another person who is incapable of managing the benefits themselves.
The audit released Friday found thousands of cases where there was no SSN on file.
Over the last decade, the agency paid $1 billion to 22,426 representative payees who “did not have an SSN, and SSA had not followed its policy to retain the paper application.”
“Furthermore, unless it takes corrective action, we estimate SSA will pay about $182.5 million in benefits, annually, to representative payees who do not have an SSN or paper application supporting their selection,” the inspector general said.
The inspector general also found the agency paid $853.1 million in benefits since 2004 to individuals who had been terminated as representative payees by the agency.
The report notes that “Illegal aliens without SSNs are allowed to receive benefits from the government when acting as representatives for their minor children.” It is unclear how many recipients of the $1 billion in improper Social Security benefits were in this country illegally.
Given that the Social Security Administration gave more than $1 billion in benefits to individuals without SSN’s, do you support President Trump’s pledge to deport illegal immigrants who abuse our public benefit programs? Share your thoughts below!