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"...As of now employers can make such checks but they are not required by law. Thus the charade of accepting phony IDs and phony Green Cards. Like this car wash owner Garcia is doing.."

Exactly right. This scenario with carwashes in particular is fairly widespread since the jobs don't pay much and there are plenty to go around. It runs rampant here in the Chicago area as well but most of what I know about deals with a certain chain of carwashes and gas stations in Portland, Oregon. There, the employer couldn't care less if the SS number and other forms of ID are forged or not. They make no effort to check the authenticity of their documents because the government will do that anyway. They go through the motions of filing the paperwork and after a lengthy delay, they are informed that the SS number is bogus or possibly stolen from someone else. The employer is then asked to re-submit correct information. The illegal comes up with a new forged SS card and the cycle is repeated almost indefinitely until the illegal moves on to another employer.

Many of the forged SS cards are obvious poor imitations. The ones that look real are usually stolen. Either way, nothing is said and the employer gets some cheap labor for awhile.

Does this employer ever get into trouble with the law? No. Not once has this employer been approached by the government for routinely hiring illegals.

Do these illegals actually pay any income tax? No. While breaking various laws such as illegal entry into the U.S., possession of forged documents, and presenting a false ID, the illegal is also breaking numerous tax laws. First, they routinely claim a high number of exemptions or claim "tax-exempt" status on their withholding forms. Second, the name and address along with the SS number filed are all bogus. No income tax (state or federal) is ever withheld except for the obligatory SS, Medicare, etc. deductions. Rarely does anyone from the IRS come looking for these illegals who all seem to be "tax exempt".

Without any enforcement action against employers, there is absolutely no incentive for them not to hire illegals, knowingly or otherwise.

" No income tax (state or federal) is ever withheld except for the obligatory SS, Medicare, etc. deductions."

I strongly oppose illegal immigration(mainly for cultural reasons), but they pay far more in social security and medicare than citizens do. An immigrant making 20k a year will pay around 2,000 a year towards social security and medicare, but he will never see it again because he's using a fake SS #.

So for most illegals, Medicare and Social Security deduction are a de facto yearly fine of 2-3 thousand dollars. Doesn't make up for all they cost our economy, but it's something.

Many of them do have income taxes withheld, and unless they have a Tax ID number from the IRS, they don't get a refund. Those with Tax ID numbers do pay little or no income taxes- you're right about that. There is an indirect tax on illegal aliens' income, though- a business that hires cheap labor will be more profitable, and they will pay tax on that profit at a much higher rate. Also, US banks and companies charge fees for sending money to Mexico, and they pay taxes on that profit.

So it's a complicated picture as far as the economic impact of illegal aliens. It's the cultural impact I can't stand- we don't need large communities of immigrants who tend not to speak English even after they've been here for 10 years. They seem to be more interested in making this country Mexico North than in assimialting.

Without any enforcement action against employers, there is absolutely no incentive for them not to hire illegals, knowingly or otherwise.

I have an interesting question. When an illegal uses a fake social security number, and after a year or so when the social security admin comes back and tells the employer that the number is bogus and the employer contributions cannot be applied, does the employer get back his employer contribution, since there is no real name and number for his contribution to be applied to? if so, then the employer does not even have to pay the employer ss contribution.