In a relatively startling revelation that may recast the debate over illegal immigration across the country, The New York Times reported today that the country’s estimated 7 million illegal immigrants may be providing a $7 billion subsidy to Social Security — roughly 10 percent of last year’s surplus. Most illegal immigrants, the article notes, manage to acquire fraudulent residency and work documents so as to land jobs subject to payroll taxes, yet will likely never draw benefits. An immigration-fraud network based in Northern Virginia was broken up late last year after allegations that it provided thousands of illegal immigrants with Social Security cards, green cards, passports, and drivers licenses — the very documents needed to land those jobs.

This development is important because it ties together the delicate reform issues of Social Security and illegal immigration, both of which have nationwide implications and have tended to divide the country’s ruling Republican majority. The link also serves as a Catch-22 for reformers on either issue — if legislation is passed to strengthen the enforcement of the country’s immigration laws without adequately considering a guest-worker program or amnesty, a large and significant subsidy to Social Security may dry up, thus weakening a system already headed towards stormy waters.

Immigration-related debates have played themselves out in both Virginia and Maryland recently, many of which focused on the economic and social impact of the area’s growing population of illegal immigrants.