Petition to Deny Social Security Benefits to Illegal Immigrants
Netlore Archive: Email petition addressed to President Bush advocates a citizenship requirement for immigrants receiving Social Security and other government services
Description: Email petition
Circulating since: May 2006
Status: Likely ineffective
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by S. Foster, 7 July 2006:
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PETITION TO REQUIRE CITIZENSHIP |
Email example contributed by Skip, 3 June 2006:
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Please sign the petition. Thanks.
Petition PETITION FOR PRESIDENT BUSH, Gov. Swartzenegger and Congressman Dana Rohrbacher [124 names deleted] If you don't forward the petition and just stop it, we will lose all these names. If you do not want to sign it, please forward it to everyone you know. Thank you!!! To add your name, click on "forward". (If you Copy & Paste, It will keep it clean.) You will be able to add your name at the bottom of the list and then forward it to your friends. THE 2,000TH PERSON SEND IT ON TO THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ADDRESS: _President@WhiteHouse.gov_ and to Gov. Arnold Swartzenagger, and Congressman Dana Rohrbacher, Sacramento, California |
Comments: As petitions go, this one is likely doomed to failure. Why? Because it's an email petition -- a glorified chain letter with no guarantee of reaching, let alone convincing, the elected officials to whom it's addressed. Even if copies do somehow make their way to Washington, there's no way for the "signatures" to be authenticated. Most, in fact, are
If you want to make your opinions known, and especially if you want them to count, it's much more effective to send personal messages directly to the parties concerned, whether they be your Congressional representatives, heads of government agencies, or the President himself.
At least one variant of this petition is prefaced with the bogus claim that Latino immigrants are set to demand that all public facilities in the U.S. be staffed by people who speak Spanish. I could find no evidence whatsoever to corroborate this claim, nor is it clear what connection it could possibly have to immigrants' eligibility for social services.
Sources and further reading:
Illegal Immigrants and Social Security
San Diego Union Tribune, 10 April 2005Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security with Millions
New York Times, 5 April 2005Immigration Bill Advances in Senate
New York Times, 24 May 2006
Last updated: 04/20/07
