Posted on 10/22/2008 8:34:13 AM PDT by NCjim
Jose Luis Hernandez rose from vegetable chopper to sous chef at an exclusive New York restaurant -- and saved $100,000 along the way. Recently, the illegal immigrant from Mexico contacted real-estate agents in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he currently rents an apartment.
"I wanted to use my money as a down payment on a house," says Mr. Hernandez, 32 years old. In doing so, he sought to join thousands of undocumented workers who in recent years have purchased homes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, instead of a Social Security number. The Internal Revenue Service doesn't give Social Security numbers to illegal immigrants; it issues ITINs, which enable them to open bank accounts and report their income to the government for tax purposes.
But Mr. Hernandez quickly learned that things have changed. He says he was told that, "unfortunately, if you don't have a Social Security number, you cannot buy property."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Um...okay.
What a horrid country we live in.
Why anyone would want to live here, I can't imagine.
Wonder what his cost to the taxpayer was...
uh, yeah
try going to mexico or any other country and buy houses as an illegal alien.
“unfortunately, if you don’t have a Social Security number, you cannot buy property.”
Sounds like a plan.
Btw, illegal, check with Bank of America. They might hook you up.
It's about time!
Mortgage prospects should be zero for illegal aliens!
Was he able to save that $100,000 because he was not paying taxes?
My stepson and his family are moving in with his Grandmother because his construction work has slowed down so much he cannot even afford an apartment. And I’m suppoesd to feel sorry about this?
Not to worry, Dems will change all that if they get control of the WH.
Que Lastima.
Yup, I imagine he could save money because he and his family had free health care at the county clinic/hospital, free/cheaper tuition at schools/colleges, and food stamps, etc.!!
Shoot. If I had all the free stuff illegals get, I could save up $100K for a new house too!
What is WRONG with this picture?!?!?!?!
Arrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He needs to quit whining and spend some of his money on good immigration lawyer to get himself legal. Once he does that, then he look into buying a home.
Dude’s a victim of discrimination because they want him to have a legal social security number—just like those poor widdle voters who can barely get through the day to go down to the DMV to get a FREE ID card for voting—it’s discrimination! Mortgage suppression!!! Housing disenfranchisement!!!! Run for the hills!!
Crazy thing is, he’ll probably sue the govt and win because some insane liberal judge will agree with him, and award him a million dollars in damages due to ‘pain and suffering’!
/sarc
That along with not having to pay for medical bills or insurance.
Go back across the border and you can probably buy a good chunk of Mexico for $100k. Take some illegal friends with you, too.
Mortgage Prospects should be good for people who are here illegally???? What is their point?
I’ll bet that he hasn’t paid taxes on the $100K as any ordinary citizen has.
This guy is 32 years old and saved $100K? When I was 32 which was 15 years ago...I was lucky to have saved $20K in the previous 10 years (salary was 27K to 32K in that period). My taxes killed me every year. Income tax, state tax, unemployement tax, medicare tax, sales taxes, taxes on dividends, and on and on. I saved as much as I could, lived a cheaply as possible, and I could only put together 1/5th of that.
I want an IRS and NYS Tax & Finance tax audit of him and his employer because something doesn’t small right about this.
This is more evidence of the rapid leftward slide of the Wall Street Journal.
They used to be a bastion of conservative thought. They have been bought and ruined by Rupurt Murdoch.
I can’t believe that an illegal would complain about not being able to function as a legal citizen. If you want rights and the ability to live like an American, take the money after taxes, go home and apply to come here legally. This is what being so PC has led to... complaints like this and illegals marching in the street with no fear of being deported!
He could return to Mexico and live very comfortably. there really is no major problem here.
How long has this guy been here?
How was he able to hold down a job without having a Social Security Number?
How much money does he owe in back FICA that was obviously not deducted from his pay checks?
aweh to baaad
I found it enlightening that of all the comments there was only one (and he seemed confused about the difference between legal and illegal) that was pro-immigrant. It seemed to be pretty unanimous.
“Wonder what his cost to the taxpayer was... “
They can use the tax ID to qualify for a tax credit. They apply under several aliases and can make quite a tidy sum. They had a report on our local TV some time back about this.
“But Mr. Hernandez quickly learned that things have changed. He says he was told that, “unfortunately, if you don’t have a Social Security number, you cannot buy property.””
I hope it’s a trend. It’s about time.
Why doesn’t he gratefully take the $100,000 he skimmed from our economy and GO HOME!
You are a lawbreaker, Hernandez, and I'm frustrated that you are not deported already. Go buy a house in Mexico, or wherever you came from.
McCain's Chil'run of God.
I know you are saying this tongue in cheek because of your frustration with the horrid border/illegal situation.
However, you should know that at least 300,000 AMERICAN CITIZENS per year have come to the same conclusion because of idiotic, freedom hating regulations like "demanding a social security number" to buy property. Each year the number of people who are saying "that is it!" is increasing. Last year it was 375,000. You should note that these are NOT drug taking addled headed morons who can't make it here. There are more and more bright, young, educated people who would never have considered this course 30 years ago. They look out and see endless debt, endless future burdens of our military attempting to police the world, surrender of freedoms by the right and socialism by the left, and just take off. I met a community of young computer programmers recently who moved to Brazil. We are voluntarily surrendering our freedoms for idiocy like this article, and more and more Americans are just saying "screw it. if i have to live in a place where i am not free, i will do it where it is cheap."
I am rapidly approaching that line, myself.
Bank of America: “We don’ need no steenking laws!”
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp
ping
Illegal immigrants should have “dim prospects” of walking around free.
Why am I not surprised the WSJ is weeping over illegal aliens not having the same rights as citizens?
Good.
Now GETTHEHELLOUTOFMYCOUNTRY, Jose Luis Hernandez!!!!
This guy probably shared an apartment with five other guys and walked to work or rode the bus. Does this match your lifestyle?
Time to head home to Mexico, Jose. Your $100K will go much farther there than in NYC.
No, all he needs to do is wait until after the next up and coming, then either Obama or McCain will provide amnesty to him and all his illegal brethren.
It actually might have been withheld under a "borrowed" SS#. Several years ago, my father who was nearly 80 years old at the time, was accused by the IRS of not reporting some of his income on his tax return, and told he owed substantial penalties for the non-reporting, in addition to more taxes than had already been withheld on the "unreported" income, because his tax bracket was higher than the withholding rate that had been used. Seems some illegal working as a busboy in a Brooklyn restaurant had used my father's SS# to get his job, and so all the busboy's wages and tips had been reported to the IRS under my father SS# (and Medicare, unemployment, and SS# withholdings had been made on these wages and tips, in addition to taxes). There was no evidence that he had used my father's name.
It took my father over a year to get the IRS to admit this wasn't his income, and my father was a retired Foreign Service Officer who currently held top secret security clearance in connection with part time contract work he was doing for the CIA. When he finally got the IRS to quit communicating with him via threatening form letters and address the issue at hand, he presented readily verifiable evidence of his part-time CIA employment, and Foreign Service pension, and the IRS backed down quickly, in the face of the laughable implausibility of the notion that he'd been working as a busboy on the side (and while residing several hundred miles away from the restaurant in question, in a home he'd owned for 30+ years). If he'd actually been a restaurant worker or manual laborer or just some ordinary blue collar Joe, especially one who lived in the NYC area, I don't know that it ever would have gotten sorted out, at least not without him spending more in legal fees than the IRS was claiming he owed.
What do you think? Not only was he not paying Federal Income Tax, he most likely wan't paying into Social Security and was not paying New York state and local taxes. He also benefited from free taxpayer provided medical care, education and probably housing assistance.
Just goes to show you how much better off we would all be with Government out of our lives. If we didn't need to pay all those taxes we could buy a house and a car with CASH! The credit crunch wouldn't effect us at all.
More Obama doctrine economics in play here, courtesy of ACORN community organizing.
*sniff*...pass me a tissue.
Its getting harder and harder to distinguish MSM from a John Semmens parody article..
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