Opinion: Reasonable Immigration Law Reform Is Not Just Humane—It’s Essential to Save Social Security and Medicare

By Denise Hammond, Senior Counsel

As debates about immigration rage, one overlooked fact should be central to our national conversation: undocumented immigrants are vital, unsung supporters of America’s Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Its US Government Trustees expect the Social Security trust fund to become insolvent in 2033, which will require an automatic 23% cut to benefits. To protect these essential programs for future generations, it’s time to view immigration reform as a fiscal necessity—not just a moral issue.

The Hard Numbers: Undocumented Workers Build Our Safety Net

In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants contributed approximately $25.7 billion to Social Security and $6.4 billion to Medicare, even though they are completely barred from receiving these benefits themselves. (And this doesn’t count those who are paid “off the books”). Their contributions take the form of a 7.65% deduction from pay, which their employer matches and submits in a payroll tax that finances Social Security and Medicare. In short, in addition to providing essential services, these workers subsidize the retirements and healthcare of American seniors and have no expectation of a financial return.

Without Reform, Social Security and Medicare Are at Risk

The public charge ground of inadmissibility under INA § 212(a)(4) is a long-standing component of U.S. immigration law that can prevent certain non-citizens from being issued a visa, granted admission to the United States, or adjusting their status to lawful permanent residence. Under current DHS regulations and longstanding policy dating back to the late 1990s, other than during a brief period during the first Trump Administration, the statute has been interpreted in a manner that aims to identify individuals who are likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by the receipt of specific public cash benefits for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense. This determination requires immigration officials to assess the non-citizen’s “totality of the circumstances,” which includes mandatory factors like age, health, family status, assets, resources, financial status, education, and skills.

A Renewed Focus on “Public Health” Conditions 

According to the latest government report, Social Security’s trust fund will become insolvent in eight years. Unless Congress acts, Americans of every political persuasion will face automatic cuts of 23% in their retirement checks. Medicare’s trust fund faces similar pressures. This financing shortfall is due to shifting demographics, including an increase in the number of retiring Baby Boomers, lower fertility rates and longer life expectancies. These trends diminish the number of workers supporting each retiree, a challenge that is intensified by current mass deportations. To remedy this and sustain Social Security and Medicare, we must create legal pathways to citizenship for those undocumented workers who pose no genuine safety risk.

Immigration Reform: The Lifeline Our Entitlements Need

Comprehensive immigration reform can safeguard our most critical social insurance programs in several ways. Allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally and openly – which is almost unattainable under current immigration law – will increase the numbers of payroll tax contributors to Social Security and Medicare. These reforms will encourage accurate reporting, maximize tax compliance and expand the revenue base even further. Moreover, young, able-bodied immigrants will help rebalance America’s aging population, replacing retirees and safeguarding our vital entitlements programs.

Argument for Realists—and Patriots

This isn’t simply a plea for compassion. It’s a call for clear-eyed, patriotic realism. Safeguarding Social Security and Medicare will require more workers paying into the system, not fewer. Deporting or marginalizing millions of contributing undocumented immigrants who cannot receive benefits themselves will accelerate the drain on the Social Security trust fund and its insolvency. No one is promoting open borders. But rational immigration reform—including a path for undocumented workers already here to legally contribute—makes compelling economic sense.

The Bottom Line

Undocumented immigrants are not a burden on our system—they are supporting it, sustaining it, and give so much more than they take, making it possible for millions of retired Americans to collect their hard-earned benefits. Rational immigration reform is not just the decent thing to do; it is smart, fiscally responsible and essential to protect Social Security and Medicare.

*Disclaimer: This information is presented for the purposes of general education and does not constitute legal advice.