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Fact check: What official data or reports exist about SSN issuance to lawful immigrants, unauthorized immigrants, and visa holders between 2019 and 2023?
Executive Summary
Official, audit, and program-coverage documents in the supplied record show partial, program-specific counts of Social Security number (SSN) assignments to noncitizens—not a comprehensive, disaggregated tally for lawful immigrants, unauthorized immigrants, and all visa holders for 2019–2023. The clearest concrete figure is an audit finding that SSA assigned roughly 587,000 original SSNs to noncitizens through Enumeration at Entry (EAE) and Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) in calendar year 2021, while broader statistical supplements and eligibility overviews do not provide the requested breakdowns [1] [2] [3].
1. What the documents claim when you ask “How many SSNs?” — a focused extraction of key figures and limits
The most direct numeric claim in the provided materials is the audit’s result that about 4.9 million original SSNs were assigned by SSA in 2021, of which roughly 587,000 were to noncitizens through EAE/EBE, and that fewer than 1,200 noncitizens received multiple SSNs due to processing errors [1]. Other documents in the set provide descriptive matrices of which immigration statuses are eligible for work authorization and work-authorized SSNs but do not enumerate issuances by lawful immigrant, unauthorized immigrant, or visa-holder categories for 2019–2023 [2] [4]. The supplied Annual Statistical Supplement materials discuss program coverage and historical tables but do not contain the disaggregated SSN issuance counts by immigration status across 2019–2023 [3].
2. The audit gives the clearest single-year noncitizen issuance snapshot — why it matters and what it does not cover
The SSA audit of Enumeration programs provides the most specific, validated count in the supplied file: 587,000 original SSNs to noncitizens via EAE/EBE in 2021, with processing error rates under 1 percent [1]. This sheds light on the Enumeration-at-Entry pipeline—the process linking immigration arrival records to SSN issuance—but it does not capture SSNs issued through domestic field offices, employment authorization applications outside EAE/EBE, replacement SSNs, or SSNs tied to other visa categories and unauthorized populations. The audit therefore offers a program-level window, not a population-level census of lawful immigrants, unauthorized immigrants, and visa holders for the full 2019–2023 period [1].
3. Eligibility overviews explain who can receive SSNs, but they stop short of counting recipients
The eligibility analyses in the documents map which noncitizen statuses qualify for employment authorization and work-authorized SSNs and present tables describing eligibility by immigration status [2]. These resources are valuable for understanding which visa categories and statuses are lawfully entitled to SSNs, and they clarify administrative criteria SSA uses to issue cards. However, eligibility tables are not issuance records; they do not provide temporal counts or trends for 2019–2023. Consequently, eligibility materials inform interpretation of possible issuance drivers but cannot substitute for issuance data when answering “how many” by status [2].
4. Broad statistical supplements focus on program coverage and finances, not immigration-specific SSN issuance
The Annual Statistical Supplement materials in the supplied set address OASDI coverage, historical provisions, and workforce coverage percentages, and may include extensive tables on wages and contributions [3] [4]. These documents are programmatic and actuarial in orientation and therefore rarely break down original SSN assignment by fine-grained immigration status. The supplied analyses confirm the Supplement does not provide the disaggregated SSN issuance counts requested for 2019–2023, highlighting a recurring gap between administrative-enumeration audits and actuarial program reports [3] [5].
5. Where the record shows gaps, and how those gaps shape interpretation of trends 2019–2023
Across the supplied items the pattern is consistent: program audits and eligibility tables exist, but no single official report in this set provides a full, disaggregated time series of SSN issuance to lawful immigrants, unauthorized immigrants, and all visa holders for 2019–2023 [6] [2] [3]. The presence of a single-year enumeration audit for 2021 means any inference about multi-year trends would require combining multiple administrative datasets not included here—enumeration program outputs, field-office assignment logs, USCIS work-authorization counts, and DHS immigration admission statistics. The existing materials therefore allow qualified statements about processes and one-year program counts, but they do not permit definitive multi-year counts by immigration status [1] [2].
6. How to close the evidence gap using the documents you have and the records they point to
To produce a comprehensive 2019–2023 breakdown, one must triangulate: use SSA enumeration-audit outputs for EAE/EBE counts, obtain SSA field-office original-SSN assignment tables, consult USCIS and DHS records on employment-authorized status grants and admissions, and cross-check with the Annual Statistical Supplement for workforce coverage context [1] [2] [3]. The supplied materials indicate where to look (SSA audit reports and eligibility tables) and what is missing (multi-year, status-specific issuance counts); assembling a definitive series will require access to SSA administrative assignment datasets and DHS/USCIS immigration-adjudication data not contained in the provided analyses [1] [4].