Presidential Document2025-06840
Preventing Illegal Aliens From Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 18, 2025
Signed
April 15, 2025
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 74 (Friday, April 18, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 74 (Friday, April 18, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 16451-16453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06840]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 74 / Friday, April 18, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 16451]]
Memorandum of April 15, 2025
Preventing Illegal Aliens From Obtaining Social
Security Act Benefits
Memorandum for the Attorney General[,] the Secretary of
Labor[,] the Secretary of Health and Human Services[,]
the Secretary of Homeland Security[,] the Commissioner
of Social Security[, and] the Inspector General of the
Social Security Administration
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, I hereby direct:
Section 1. Responsibility for Determining Eligibility
for Public Benefits. (a) As set forth in Executive
Order 14218 of February 19, 2025 (Ending Taxpayer
Subsidization of Open Borders), both Federal law (title
IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193)) and
principles of sound administration demand that
taxpayer-funded benefits be provided only to eligible
persons and not encourage or reward illegal immigration
to the United States. This interest is especially
compelling with respect to Social Security Act
benefits, which demand strict policing of fraud, waste,
and abuse to ensure future eligible individuals receive
the benefits to which they are entitled. Consequently,
this memorandum gives additional direction for
implementing Executive Order 14218 with regard to
Social Security Act programs.
(b) The Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, and the Commissioner of Social
Security, in consultation with the Secretary of
Homeland Security as necessary, shall take all
reasonable measures, consistent with applicable law, to
ensure ineligible aliens are not receiving funds from
Social Security Act programs. Such measures shall
include promulgating any necessary guidance or
regulations regarding Social Security Act funds and, to
the extent appropriate and consistent with law,
prioritizing civil or administrative enforcement
actions against States, localities, or other similar
grantees or subgrantees that do not take adequate
measures to verify eligibility, stop payments to
deceased or otherwise ineligible payees, or otherwise
prevent ineligible aliens from receiving funds from
Social Security Act programs.
(c) The Attorney General and the Commissioner of
Social Security shall cooperate to detail and
credential such Special Assistant United States
Attorneys as are necessary to expand the Social
Security Administration's (SSA) full-time fraud
prosecutor program to at least 50 United States
Attorney Offices by October 1, 2025. Likewise, the
Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human
Services shall cooperate to establish a similar fraud-
prosecutor program utilizing Special Assistant United
States Attorneys with regard to programs administered
by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
which shall operate in at least 15 United States
Attorney Offices by October 1, 2025. Detailees in both
programs shall emphasize prosecutions of identity theft
and beneficiary-side fraud. To the extent feasible, the
Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human
Services or the Commissioner of Social Security, as
applicable, shall prioritize assigning new detailees in
both programs to the 10 United States Attorney Offices
whose jurisdictions encompass the largest known
populations of illegal aliens, as determined by the
Secretary of Homeland Security.
[[Page 16452]]
(d) The risk of beneficiary- or recipient-side
fraud and abuse by illegal aliens shall also be reduced
through other program-integrity measures.
(i) The Inspector General of the SSA noted in a July 2023 audit that death
information regarding millions of deceased number holders is missing from
the agency's files, which obstructs efforts to prevent and detect fraud and
improper payments across the Government with respect to executive
departments and agencies that rely on SSA's information. The Commissioner
of Social Security shall fully implement the recommendations in the
Inspector General of the SSA's Audit Report A-06-21-51022. The Secretary of
Health and Human Services shall cooperate fully with such implementation.
(ii) The same audit report revealed that the SSA does not investigate or
attempt to resolve reports of earnings received by individuals age 100 or
older if the SSA has not recorded death information for such individuals,
even when the reported wage-earner does not match the name or other
personally identifiable information in SSA records, which may indicate
identity theft, illegal work, tax evasion, or other unlawful activity. The
Commissioner of Social Security shall refer promptly to the Inspector
General of the SSA all earnings reports for persons age 100 or older when
the purported wage-earner's name does not match SSA's files. The Inspector
General of the SSA shall investigate such matters as appropriate and refer
matters to the Department of Justice, other executive departments and
agencies, or local prosecutors as warranted.
(iii) Finally, within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the
Commissioner of Social Security shall review whether, and under what
conditions, SSA should resume pursuing civil monetary penalties under
section 1129 of the Social Security Act. If the Commissioner of Social
Security determines that resumption is warranted, he shall either resume
such program immediately or pursue regulatory or policy changes that would
allow its resumption in a timely manner.
Sec. 2. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent
with applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
[[Page 16453]]
(d) The Commissioner of Social Security is
authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in
the Federal Register.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, April 15, 2025
[FR Doc. 2025-06840
Filed 4-17-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4191-02-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 18, 2025.
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