During his extravagant election event in Wisconsin on Sunday night, Elon Musk showcased a chart that he claimed was “mind-blowing,” depicting a notable rise in the number of immigrants obtaining Social Security numbers.
The graphic illustrated that while an increasing number of noncitizens have received Social Security numbers, it did not indicate they were receiving benefits. However, neither Musk nor Antonio Gracias, a team member from his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), clarified this point. “These are noncitizens receiving Social Security,” stated Gracias, a Musk associate and private equity firm leader.
Furthermore, the initiative aimed at hastening the issuance of Social Security numbers to legal immigrants—which Musk and Gracias criticized—was initiated during the first term of the Trump administration.
Naturally, Musk and Gracias failed to mention this fact.
The federal initiative to automatically dispatch Social Security cards to legal immigrants, known as Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE), commenced in 2017 under Donald Trump’s administration, according to a 2019 report from the Social Security Administration (SSA) inspector general.
“As of October 2017, the EBE program was established through a partnership between SSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to aid SSA in enumerating specific applicants residing in the U.S. who sought work authorization and needed an SSN,” the report highlights. Through the EBE program, the SSA collaborated with DHS to verify the legal status of immigrants authorized to work in the U.S., subsequently issuing Social Security numbers automatically.
Kathleen Romig, a former Social Security official currently with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explained to Rolling Stone that the EBE program was created to streamline the process for legal immigrants entering the system by automatically assigning them Social Security numbers instead of requiring visits to an SSA office.
“In 2017, the issuance of Social Security cards to noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. began,” Romig noted. Under President Biden, the Enumeration Beyond Entry program has expanded to encompass additional categories of legal immigrants.
In the first year of the Trump administration, the SSA allocated 82,202 Social Security numbers through the EBE program, in addition to 237,000 issued at field offices, as stated in the May 2018 congressional testimony of Nancy Berryhill, the SSA’s acting commissioner at the time due to the Trump administration’s failure to appoint a permanent commissioner.
On Sunday evening, Musk and Gracias displayed their chart indicating that the number of legal immigrants granted Social Security numbers—termed “enumeration” by the agency—had risen during Biden’s tenure. This increase was an anticipated outcome of Biden’s more progressive policies towards legal immigrants, according to former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley.
“The rise in enumerations during the Biden administration was directly linked to the increase in lawfully admitted immigrants,” O’Malley explained.
Musk and Gracias did not elaborate on this to the audience at Sunday’s gathering, instead portraying the automatic issuance of Social Security numbers to legal immigrants as an instance of waste and fraud. “This genuinely surprised us, we were there to uncover fraud, and we stumbled upon this,” Gracias remarked.
The legal immigrants receiving Social Security numbers referenced in Musk and Gracias’s chart likely included those on H1-B visas, a category Musk has endorsed. Both Musk and Gracias are naturalized citizens who would have attained Social Security numbers, similar to all the immigrants illustrated in the chart.
Legal immigrants are allocated Social Security numbers—not benefits—to enable tax contributions. Musk contended that their chart demonstrated that Democrats, under Biden, were attempting “to import as many illegals as possible” to “alter the entire voting landscape of the United States,” despite the fact that legal immigrants cannot utilize a Social Security number to register to vote.
The Trump administration and a representative for Musk’s DOGE did not respond to requests for comments, nor did Gracias through his private equity firm, Valor Equity Partners.
THE CHART presented by Musk and Gracias illustrated an increase in the number of immigrants acquiring Social Security numbers through the EBE program—from 964,000 in 2023 to more than 2 million in 2024. Musk and Gracias refrained from presenting the number of legal immigrants granted Social Security numbers during Trump’s initial term. They discussed the chart as though it provided evidence that illegal immigrants were accessing Social Security benefits.
The duo seemed to overlook the fact that the “noncitizens” receiving Social Security numbers depicted in their chart were legal immigrants who entered the U.S. with work or student visas, or were otherwise legally authorized to work within the country. Whether this was due to ignorance or intentional deception remained unclear.
“All individuals represented in that chart, had Kamala Harris’s ‘machine’ won, would have been legalized, eliminating swing states,” Musk remarked, referring to the former Vice President.
“These individuals are just now beginning to enter benefit programs,” Gracias claimed, again neglecting to clarify that the “noncitizens” in the chart had simply been granted Social Security numbers—not benefits.
Gracias and Musk’s assertions contribute to the widespread narrative claiming that undocumented immigrants are receiving federal benefits like Social Security and Medicaid, a recurring theme among Republican rhetoric during the Trump era.
Former President Trump has persistently contended that undocumented immigrants receive Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits, which is against the law. In February, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) introduced legislation to bar undocumented immigrants from acquiring Social Security benefits—which have been illegal since 1996, when amendments to the Social Security Act excluded those not “lawfully present” in the U.S. from receiving benefits.
To obtain a Social Security number, an undocumented immigrant would need to present themselves at an SSA office or apply online or via phone with fraudulent documentation, according to O’Malley and Romig. Musk asserted that undocumented immigrants “could easily fabricate evidence, such as a fake utility bill or medical record, along with a school ID, to secure a Social Security number and subsequently register to vote.”
O’Malley highlighted that there is no proof of undocumented immigrants obtaining Social Security numbers—let alone benefits. He referred to Musk and Gracias’s remarks as “another major falsehood.”
“They continue to conflate having a Social Security number with receiving Social Security benefits,” O’Malley told Rolling Stone, stressing that assertions regarding illegal immigrants benefiting from Social Security are “fabrications intended to incite their followers.”
“It’s simply not accurate, and flaunting a large graph while standing in front of an American flag won’t change that,” O’Malley stated.
Although there is no substantiated evidence indicating undocumented immigrants are receiving Social Security benefits, they do contribute to the fund. In 2022, undocumented immigrants contributed $25.7 billion to Social Security—funds that ultimately benefit American citizens enrolled in the program.
Musk and Gracias’s claim that illegal immigrants obtain Social Security benefits gained traction with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who tweeted on X that the practice of issuing Social Security numbers to noncitizens “must end NOW.” Perry’s office did not promptly address inquiries about his statement or clarify whether he supports denying Social Security numbers to legal immigrants to ensure they can contribute to the system.
Under Trump, the SSA suspended certain elements of the Enumeration Beyond Entry program, as reported in an internal SSA memo obtained by Popular Information in March 2020. Consequently, some legal immigrants must now apply in person at SSA field offices to receive a Social Security number.
The increase in legal immigrants applying in person for Social Security numbers will likely escalate the workload for staffers at agency field offices—a complication worsened by DOGE’s initiative to close numerous SSA offices.
“It’s part of a broader attempt to undermine Social Security’s ability to serve its clients, and the frontline of this strategy is overwhelming already overburdened field offices,” O’Malley commented to Rolling Stone.
