Congress moves to strip Social Security from non-citizens, even longtime contributors

What it does

This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to notify Social Security within 180 days whenever someone's citizenship, immigration status, or work authorization changes. It then bars non-citizens and non-nationals from receiving any Social Security benefits—including retirement, disability, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, SSI, and TANF—regardless of how long they worked or paid into the system. The bill also mandates annual reports on notification effectiveness and fraud prevention.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a blanket eligibility bar based on citizenship status, not a reform of Social Security's structure or solvency. It redefines Social Security from an earned-benefit program (funded by payroll taxes) into a citizenship-conditional entitlement, fundamentally altering the program's character.

What the text implies

• The 180-day notification window creates a lag during which non-citizens may receive benefits they are later deemed ineligible for, triggering overpayment recovery actions and potential debt collection against individuals who may have relied on lawful work authorization at the time of receipt.
• Mandatory data-sharing between DHS and SSA creates a centralized citizenship-status database accessible across federal agencies, expanding surveillance infrastructure and increasing risk of misclassification, data breaches, or use for immigration enforcement beyond the bill's stated scope.
• The bill does not address individuals with pending citizenship applications, asylum seekers with work permits, or those with temporary protected status (TPS)—all of whom may have paid payroll taxes but will be barred retroactively, creating a class of contributors denied earned benefits.
• Annual reporting requirements on 'fraud detection' may incentivize aggressive audits and benefit terminations, shifting administrative burden onto SSA and creating chilling effects on benefit claims by immigrants with uncertain status, even if legally eligible.
• The bill's blanket bar on 'any other benefit administered by the Social Security Administration' is undefined and may extend to benefits not explicitly listed, creating ambiguity and potential for over-enforcement.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

The bill strips benefits from non-citizens and non-nationals who may have paid payroll taxes for decades, converting Social Security from an earned-benefit program into a citizenship-gated entitlement. This harms immigrants who contributed to the system and may have legal work authorization, and creates administrative burden and data-sharing risks for ordinary citizens whose immigration status may be misrecorded or disputed.

Named in the bill

Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Social Security Administration (SSA), Commissioner of Social Security, Secretary of Homeland Security, Social Security Act, Immigration and Nationality Act, Medicare (Title XVIII), Medicaid (Title XIX), CHIP (Title XXI), SSI (Title XVI), TANF (Title IV-A), Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

Where it stands

• Feb 24, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Feb 24, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Energy…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $760,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 94 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Jefferson Van Drew, the sponsor, reported $386,700 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• AFL-CIO — $760,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.