Fact Sheets

# Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Prevents Illegal Aliens from Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits

The White House
April 15, 2025

ENDING BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits.

- The Memorandum directs the administration to ensure ineligible aliens are not receiving funds from Social Security Act programs.
  - This includes promulgating guidance and prioritizing enforcement actions against grantees or subgrantees that do not: verify eligibility, stop payments to deceased or ineligible payees, or otherwise prevent ineligible aliens from receiving funds.
- It expands the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. Attorney Offices and establishes a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. Attorney Offices.
- The Memorandum requires the SSA Inspector General to investigate earnings reports for individuals aged 100 or older with mismatched SSA records, to combat identity theft.
- It also directs the SSA to consider whether to reinstate the use of civil monetary penalties against individuals who engage in Social Security fraud, an effort that has been paused for several years.

PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS: President Trump believes that taxpayer-funded benefits should be provided only to eligible persons and must not encourage or reward illegal immigration to the United States.

- Policing Social Security Act fraud is critical because the Act contains not only traditional Social Security provided to older Americans, but also unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, and other programs.
- The surge in illegal immigration caused by the previous Administration is siphoning dollars and essential services from American citizens while state and local budgets grow increasingly strained.
  - Biden oversaw a sharp increase in the number of immigrants given Social Security Numbers (SSNs), with more than 2 million illegal aliens assigned SSNs in fiscal year 2024 alone.
- The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) calculated that American taxpayers spend at least $182 billion annually to cover the costs incurred by the presence of 20 million illegal aliens and their children, which includes $66.4 billion in Federal expenses plus an additional $115.6 billion in state and local expenses.
  - FAIR estimated that nearly a million illegal aliens hold stolen identifications or fraudulent SSNs.
  - Although some illegal aliens do pay taxes, those tax contributions come nowhere near covering the costs they impose on the populace; FAIR estimates illegal aliens are still a $150.7 billion net fiscal burden.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Biden Administration’s open borders agenda, which sought to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services to illegal aliens, has cost Federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion. Joe Biden also tried to make illegal aliens eligible for Obamacare until he was stopped in a lawsuit.

MAKING IT CLEAR THE BORDER IS CLOSED: President Trump is removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States.

- President Trump promised to take illegal immigrants off Social Security.
- This Memorandum builds on an Executive Order President Trump signed in February to ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration.
- Already, his administration has stopped more than 1,000 immigrants with criminal records or ties to terrorist activity from receiving Social Security benefits.
- The Trump Administration also launched the CBP Home app to give illegal aliens the option to self-deport.

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