The people who believe this sort of email think that all the illegals work and get paid "under the table" of course they don't- their employers would never be able to justify who earned THEM all that money.
Illegals usually either have face SSNs or there is a program to allow them to actually pay taxes. One of the funnier points that was made about the amnesty was about how THEY would have to pay back taxes-well guess what they do pay taxes in fact they (generally) never file for refund because they could lead to an audit...basically anything that keeps attention away from them is a good thing.
Back to Social Security. Here is what I was able to find- there is very little information/research done on this issue (gee can you figure out why?)
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/underpants/27For round numbers there appear to be about 10 Million "illegal immigrants" or "undocumented workers". Not to parse words here, they both mean basically the same thing.
Of undocumented/illegals--> 60-75% entered illegally. The other 25-40% entered legally and overstayed their visas or otherwise violated the terms of their admission.
-Of those 57% are Mexican, 23% are from other Latin American countries, 10% are Asian, 5% are European or Canadian, and 5% are from everywhere else.
Of the Foreign Born Population (~ 35 Million) in the US 25% are illegal/undocumented-- 30% are Legal, 30% Naturalized, 8% Refugees, 5% Temporary legal.
40% of illegals are women. 54% live in married families or other families. Fewer then half are single men and unattached.
According to the US Social Security Administration 75% pay payroll taxes and will contribute $6-7 BILLION in Social Security funds that they will never claim.
Okay here is where it gets fuzzy.
90-96% are employed (I saw both numbers)
AND NOW the big question
Do they drain social service resources MORE than they contribute?
The CATO Institute (yes them) says:
Myth number four: Immigrants impose a financial burden on taxpayers. Immigrants do make somewhat heavier use of means-tested welfare programs than natives. There have been especially flagrant abuses by immigrants of particular welfare programs, such as Supplemental Security Income. But because immigrants tend to come to the United States during the start of their working years --between the ages of 18 and 35 -- they make very large net contributions to the two largest income transfer programs: Social Security and Medicare. When the payroll tax contributions of immigrants are taken into account, the Urban Institute found that the foreign born constitute a net fiscal windfall to the public sector of some $20 billion a year. To the extent that welfare use by immigrants is a problem, this can be addressed by restricting the welfare eligibility of immigrants, not by keeping immigrants out.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/4-22-97.html PBS (yes THEM) says
Immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in public services in their lifetime?
REALITY: Welfare use among non-refugee immigrants is lower than among U.S. native-born citizens in the same age group (15-64). The 1990 census reported that 20.4 percent of immigrants were on welfare, compared with 26.2 percent of U.S. native-born citizens. In 1997, immigrants paid an estimated $133 billion in federal, state and local taxes. A typical immigrant and his or her offspring pay an estimated $80,000 more in taxes than they will receive in federal, state and local benefits over the course of their lifetimes.