By welcoming immigrants, we can uphold the promise of America — and help all Americans enjoy security in old age.
Social Security is all that stands between millions of Americans and poverty in old age.
Two-thirds of seniors would lose most of their income if Social Security payments ceased. One in seven have essentially no other income — and if their already modest Social Security checks are reduced, they’ll go hungry.
But Social Security is in trouble.
The number of people reaching retirement age has been growing faster than the number of workers contributing, and Social Security has been running in the red for the last 15 years. The shortfall is projected to drain the Social Security trust fund entirely in just eight years, which could lead to massive benefit cuts.
How can this calamity be avoided? One answer is to lift the cap on income taxed for Social Security. That would ensure wealthier Americans pay into Social Security at the same rate that working and middle class Americans have to.
Another is simply to welcome more immigrants — and stop deporting the law-abiding people who’ve already settled here. Since a growing shortage of workers is a major problem for Social Security, immigrants can be part of the solution.
Social Security is beset by a perfect storm of population developments.
The number of people who receive benefits is mushrooming. The 76 million-strong “Baby Boomer” generation is retiring. When the last of that cohort reach retirement age, the number of retirement-age Americans will have almost doubled compared to 2008.
Retirees are also living longer, so Social Security must pay benefits for longer. And there are fewer working adults because the birth rate has been declining for decades.
This adds up to too few working-age people to sustain the snowballing number of retired people. In 1960, five workers paid into Social Security for each person taking money out. Today there are fewer than three.
Trump’s plan to deport 8.3 million undocumented workers would make this worse.
Contrary to Trump’s lies, undocumented workers actually subsidize the system to the tune of $25 billion per year, since they contribute payroll taxes but can’t receive benefits unless they get a pathway to legal residency. Immigrants are on average younger than U.S.-born Americans and offer both immediate and longer-term boosts to the working population.
A 25-year-old lawfully admitted immigrant who gets a job begins contributing to Social Security immediately, but won’t start drawing benefits until they retire decades later. Immigrants also tend to have more children than U.S.-born Americans, lifting the future supply of young workers.
The impact — and benefit to the health of Social Security — could be gigantic. Social Security Administration actuaries did the math. Their analysis indicates that if we had one million more immigrants, their Social Security contributions would cover one quarter of the trust fund shortfall.
In short, for this reason and many others, America needs to encourage immigration — not make up vicious lies to demonize immigrants!
Immigrants flee their native lands and leave their families, friends, and neighbors to escape government persecution, gang violence, climate disasters, and grinding poverty — with hopes of finding freedom, safety, and a better life in America.
By welcoming them, we not only uphold the promise of America — we also improve the chances that all Americans will enjoy security in old age. Welcome, immigrants! We need you!
Mitchell Zimmerman is an attorney, longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi Reckoning. His writing can also be found on his Substack, Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org (CC BY-ND 3.0).
