Thread: Read the SS Totalization Agreement with Mexico!

For anyone interested in reading the Social Security Totalization agreement with Mexico, it is posted here-

http://www.congressandimmigration.com/T ... eement.pdf

Thanks Kate, excellent find.

After a quick read of the document, I was curious about these two seemingly small, but potentially important provisions:

From Article 20 'Termination':

Bad:

"2. If this Agreement is terminated, benefits already being paid shall continue to be paid. consistent with the applicable laws of each Party."

So, does that mean that if/when this agreement is put into effect (eg. signed by 'W') and benefits start to roll out to Mexicans which have worked in the US and paid SS taxes [we presume, and either legally or ILLEGALLY] ...does that mean that if the agreement is later scrapped, the benefits would continue to be paid anyway...??? OK, all you legal people, help me out here. What is the underlying purpose of this provision...?

Good:

"1. Either Party may terminate this Agreement by giving written notice of its intent to do so to the other Party at any time. This Agreement shall remain in force and effect until the expiration of one calendar year following the year in which such written notice is given by one of the Parties."

It appears that if this awful thing were signed into law, that later on, a responsible administration could ax this thing and shut down benefits within a year.

Interestingly, the agreement was signed by some representative of the SSA in June of 2004. So, a lot of people in government knew this was working it's way through the legal/diplomatic channels for the last couple years...