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  • 2006-06-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Did U.S. Senators Vote to Give 'Illegal Aliens' Social Security Benefits? (en)
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  • On 25 May 2006, the U.S. Senate, by a 62-36 bipartisan vote, passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (CIRA) — a controversial bill which proponents touted as providing comprehensive and humane immigration reform, and which opponents criticized as unfairly rewarding illegal aliens by allowing them to obtain legal status. On 18 May 2006, while the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act was still under consideration, Senator John Ensign of Nevada proposed an amendment to the bill to ensure that persons who receive an adjustment of status under [the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act] are not able to receive Social Security benefits as a result of unlawful activity. The crux of Senator Ensign's argument was that immigrants who had entered and worked in the U.S. illegally and paid into the Social Security system using fraudulently-obtained Social Security numbers should not be allowed to receive credit for those payments: The Senate vote on this amendment is what is reproduced in this email: Although the message's text accurately reflects the roll call vote that took place, the accuracy of its characterization of those senators who voted Yea as voting to give 'illegal aliens' Social Security benefits is not accurate for a number of reasons: In a nutshell, the amendment referenced above wasn't about giving 'illegal aliens' Social Security benefits; it was about whether formerly illegal aliens (who had since become legal) should be credited for monies they themselves had paid into the Social Security fund while they were in the U.S. illegally. The senators listed above did not vote in favor of this proposition; they voted to withdraw the amendment from consideration. (en)
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