Totalization agreement spurs fears of immigration --- causes backlash from senior advocacy groups and anti-immigration campaigns

Most totalization agreements have been signed with little or no notice from the public. 165 However, the proposed U.S.-Mexico agreement has made some concerned citizens' groups furious.'1 66 Senior citizens and border-protection groups have expressed opposition to this agreement. 67 A resolution was even introduced in Congress expressing disapproval with the signed totalization agreement with Mexico. 168 Concerns have been expressed before the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims of the Judiciary Committee 169 that under the proposed agreement with Mexico, illegal immigrants would qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance ("SSDI") after only being in the United States for eighteen months,170 and that the system would be ripe for abuse from Mexican nationals aided by unscrupulous physicians who could diagnose and treat illegitimate injuries."' In addition, senior citizen groups such as "The Seniors Coalition,"' 172 are concerned that the Trust Fund will not be able to provide for Mexican nationals who may benefit from the Social Security system under this agreement. 173 The Retired Enlisted Association ("TREA") Senior Citizens League has recently sent a petition to Congress trying to initiate another attempt to adopt a resolution aimed at blocking a U.S.-Mexico agreement. 74 Another concern raised by critics is that a totalization agreement with Mexico will promote a policy that encourages Mexican citizens to immigrate, legally or illegally, to the United States in order to qualify for SSDI and other benefits. 75 Many critics fear that if an agreement is allowed to take effect, Mexicans will become eligible for Social Security benefits regardless of their legal status in the United States. 76 This eligibility could cause an increase in the incidents of fraud against the Social Security system if Mexicans systematically claim disabilities which may or may not actually exist.177 Another complaint from critics is that once a Mexican national is vested in the U.S. Social Security system, benefits will be paid to the worker and his spouse for the remainder of their lives, and because the current U.S. Social Security system is progressive, benefits are incrementally better for low-wage earners. The critics fear that this payout will add too great a burden on the Trust Fund. 17 8 The fears swirling around the U.S.-Mexico agreement are only exacerbated by a recent General Accounting Office ("GAO") report that states the "cost of such an agreement is highly uncertain.', 179 The GAO report lists several areas of concern in trying to determine the true cost of an agreement. 180 These areas of concerns include: the SSA's process for developing the agreement was neither thorough nor well-documented, 181 the research of the Mexican Social Security system was too informal to validate the integrity and compatibility of the Mexican system with the U.S. system,' 82 and poor data was relied upon by the SSA. 183 This poor data was used to project the short-term and long-term costs of the totalization agreement with Mexico.184 Mexico's social security program is not as financially beneficial to low wage earners as the United States' program.185 The Mexican program takes 1,250 weeks of contributions, or a full twenty-four years, to become vested in the program, and even then the worker only receives what he or she actually contributed plus interest.186 By comparison, the United States fully vests workers after only forty credits, which could be earned in as little as ten years. 87 Mexican social security is divided into two separate systems: one for the private sector and another for the public sector.' 88 The Mexican program for the public sector is in dire straits because the promised benefit is 100% of the last twelve months of salary upon retirement and the retirement age in Mexico is fifty-six with a current life expectancy of seventy-eight. 89 Currently, the ratio of workers per retirees in the public sector is five-to-one, but this is expected to change to two-to-one by 2020.190 Mexico's private sector's social security program has been converted from a "defined-benefit" plan to a "defined-contribution" plan that provides the Mexican government some short-term relief from bankruptcy.191 A large majority of Mexican workers may opt out and not contribute anything to their retirement, which is one of the problems with the Mexican "defined-contribution" plan. 1