Posted on 01/20/2016 6:22:04 PM PST by Law is not justice but process
Yep, they use numbers amoungst themselves, relatives trade numbers, they make up numbers, and there is a black market for numbers, etc. When the payroll service or HR department catches it they just say it was a mistake and give another number and around it goes again. Short time day labor is paid in cash though.
When the INS shows up at work sites they all scatter and never show back up. Then the contractor starts all over.
Although years ago the Vietnamese and Cambodian laborers were legal they did have a nationwide underground communications system that notified what part of the country has jobs and what kind. They would move like the old seasonal field workers of years ago.
Our company uses E-verify. You cannot run the e-verify until AFTER you’ve hired the person, and if it comes back that the ID isn’t legit, you are to send the employee a letter asking for clarification, etc. But you are FORBIDDEN to fire them for it until ‘the process’ with E-verify has been completed.
Ditto all that...
I’ve seen this since the 70’s. Sub contractors, paid cash under the table, if they have social security numbers at all they’re stolen, or made up, ditto for ID.
The line quoted above is right, if they would go after the big companies doing this, it would seriously diminish it. The problem is that a lot of the same lawmakers who claim they want to stop it, also own the companies doing it or profiting from it.
They know 90% of these people are illegal. They know they are living 10 or more in a one bedroom apartment. They know illegals are sending hundreds of millions of dollars back to Mexico every Friday. I saw the line at the local Western Union in north Louisiana every week, always a dozen to 20 ready to send money home. And that’s just the 15 minutes I was there to buy my meager $20 groceries for the week...if I had that much...
I was a trim carpenter on new housing. Every framing crew in town was illegals, and it was well known. I can only wonder how many American carpenters can’t find jobs. One of those framing crews came back to the house we were working on, knowing we ate lunch on the back porch, and when I went back outside to get some bottle water, the framing crew that had just left the job was trying to push our tool trailer back and hook it up to their truck, with around $10,000 in tools inside it. We both ran outside throwing hammers, they left in a hurry. Police didn’t do a thing about it, never found out who it was.
First thing the other crews told us when we showed up on a new job was don’t leave anything sitting around, they will steal anything that’s not nailed down. We knew it already, our tools had been stolen on other jobs long before. I found out the first job I was on with illegals, lost a borrowed hammer and tape measure, which I had to replace. Plus my cigarettes and Ray Ban sunglasses...$55 for those things...I was not happy..
I worked at a clothes hanger mfg plant, all illegals, first thing the Mexican foreman would do is show the new hires the hole in the fence. Company refused to let me fix it, I was maintenance man, that was my job. So I had to leave a huge hole in the fence so the company could have cheap labor. All the high school kids were leaving town to find work...If immigration showed up, someone in the office would stall them for 3 minutes, the whole crew was long gone by the time they made it out of the office. All on stolen or made up social security numbers and fake names. All claimed they didn’t speak English...but I knew several did. I’d walk by and call them something or other, and watch the glares...they wouldn’t mess with us though, my brother and I practiced in the yard with wooden practice swords and staffs...they called us loco...and wouldn’t come anywhere near us. I’d just grin and walk on by...
And any large farm around harvest time when the fields are full of day laborers.
A friend who worked with illegals (as movers) said they told him they wouldn’t be bothered as long as they allowed taxes to be taken from their paychecks (which they couldn’t recoup via a tax return, as they were unable to file). He also described how freely they crossed the border, visiting family once or twice a year at will.
stolen identity
They claim 9 exemptions on their W9 withholding form. I never saw one with more than $10 FWT on the W2.
In my town in northeastern NJ it seems the only laws enforced with the illegals were related to driving cars without any paperwork (probably because they were driving drunk as well as fleeing the scenes of accidents). Now each morning we see scenes that could be from Red China, where the illegals all pedal bikes to work.
How long can that last? One year?
You ask good questions and I will offer a quick general response. To set the larger picture, go to Walmart after 8pm and you will notice very few shoppers speak a work of English. That crowd is working the government benefits angle and, for the most part being minimally skilled, are prime candidates for construction labor jobs.
While the art has evolved over the decades to meet greater or lesser enforced regulations and laws it basically boils down to a couple of things (somewhat similar to prostitution).
1. U.S. citizens who may be on the run can use a false SS# or even a friend's #. Others may simply make up a # to get by in the near term or for the project. Got a # and the employer has reason to think you can do the job without getting injured, you got the job. Yes, most are paid under the table either by the owner or a seemingly bonafide go-between.
Is there some loophole in the law that allows the employers to avoid record-keeping and tax requirements?
2. It is possible to attempt to shift employer risk by helping an individual who has access to the illegal labor pool become established as a subcontractor. That individual, who is not paid under the table but is paid as a legitimate subcontractor may be only loosely connected to the community and is usually ready to disappear if circumstances warrant.
I was aware in the past of contractors that would rather pay taxes on a greater profit than pay the taxes and other costs associated with labor. Employing a minimal legitimate labor force, even if somewhat less than minimal was sufficient to carry the day.
Does no one inspect job sites?
If the project is not subject to a union agreement or certified payrolls are not required, it is up to state and federal labor agencies to enforce their respective laws. It is most likely that effort has diminished substantially over the years.
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Caution: Strong Language Alert!
.. from the EEOC website. Every citizen should read it and weep. Whatever document the applicant wishes to supply that says they are here legally, you have to accept it.
http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_citizenship.cfm
Pre-Employment Inquiries and Citizenship
Employers should not ask whether or not a job applicant is a United States citizen before making an offer of employment. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 12986 (IRCA) makes it illegal for employers to discriminate with respect to hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral for a fee, based on an individual’s citizenship or immigration status. For example, the law prohibits employers from hiring only U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents unless required to do so by law, regulation or government contract; it also prohibits employers from preferring to hire temporary visa holders or undocumented workers over qualified U.S. citizens or other protected individuals, such as refugees or individuals granted asylum.
IRCA requires employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all employees hired after November 6, 1986, by completing the Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) Form, and reviewing documents showing the employee’s identity and employment authorization. The law prohibits employers from rejecting valid documents or insisting on additional documents beyond what is legally required for employment eligibility verification (or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Form I-9), based on an employee’s citizenship status or national origin. For example, e.g., an employer cannot require only individuals the employer perceives as “foreign” to verify their employment eligibility or produce specific documents, such as Permanent Resident (”green”) cards or Employment Authorization Documents. It is the employee’s choice which of the permitted documents to show for employment eligibility verification. As long as the document appears reasonably genuine on its face, and relates to the employee, it should be accepted.
I also noticed they also knew to the dollar when to quit work so as to collect the maximum EIC.
It’s call an ITIN. Individual Taxpayer identification number.
Who needs an ITIN?
IRS issues ITINs to foreign nationals and others who have federal tax reporting or filing requirements and do not qualify for SSNs. A non-resident alien individual not eligible for a SSN, who is required to file a U.S. tax return only to claim a refund of tax under the provisions of a U.S. tax treaty, needs an ITIN.
Examples of individuals who need ITINs include:
* Non-resident alien filing a U.S. tax return and not eligible for a SSN
* U.S. resident alien (based on days present in the United States) filing a U.S. tax return and not eligible for a SSN
* Dependent or spouse of a U.S. citizen/resident alien
* Dependent or spouse of a non-resident alien visa holder
Citizenship has been made worthless.
I wonder how the contractors manage to employ a labor force that consists almost entirely of illegal aliens.
How do you know?
South Carolina requires all employers to use e-verify. I would say out of state contractors/subcontractors skirt this requirement.
Does the government issue those to illegal aliens?
I don’t know how it works now, but back in the day we had to fill out I-9’s and if a person presented you with what appeared to be valid documentation you pretty much had to take it at face value. Some of the fakes were really really good, and then there are the real fakes sold by SS and DMV employees. The vast majority of the time we didn’t know we had an illegal employed until we got that little letter from Social Security asking us to verify a name and number.
From my experience, generally the leader of the team is legal and speaks at least reasonable English. The rest speak no English and that gives them away.
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