Notice2025-07130
Presidential Memorandum; 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 25, 2025
Issuing agencies
Social Security Administration
Abstract
This notice publishes the Presidential Memorandum titled "Preventing Illegal Aliens from Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits."
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 79 (Friday, April 25, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 79 (Friday, April 25, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17498-17499]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-07130]
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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
[Docket No. SSA-2025-0021]
Presidential Memorandum; Preventing Illegal Aliens From Obtaining
Social Security Act Benefits
AGENCY: Social Security Administration.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice publishes the Presidential Memorandum titled
``Preventing Illegal Aliens from Obtaining Social Security Act
Benefits.''
DATES: The Presidential Memorandum was issued on April 15, 2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Steffensen, Acting Deputy
Commissioner and General Counsel of the Office of Law and Policy, 6401
Security Blvd., Woodlawn, MD 21235; (410) 965-6955.
[[Page 17499]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 15, 2025, the President of the
United States issued a Presidential Memorandum (PM) to the Commissioner
of Social Security titled ``Preventing Illegal Aliens from Obtaining
Social Security Act Benefits.'' The PM further authorizes and directs
the Commissioner to publish the PM in the Federal Register.
Leland Dudek,
Acting Commissioner, Social Security Administration.
Preventing Illegal Aliens From Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits
April 15, 2025
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
The Inspector General of the Social Security Administration
Subject: Preventing Illegal Aliens From Obtaining Social Security Act
Benefits
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 (Pub. L. 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.
(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.
(d) The Commissioner of Social Security is authorized and directed
to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
[FR Doc. 2025-07130 Filed 4-24-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 25, 2025.
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