Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent (Illegal Immigration)

NY Times ^ | 6/7/2005 | EDUARDO PORTER

[hershey]

I read that same thing a few months ago, that Arabs/terrorists in training/AlQaeda, etc., did this for years. Come to the US, have a child, take it back home to the Middle East and raise it as a terrorist, complete with American passport.

[Calpernia]

bump

[chris1]

The 19 9/11 hijackers had 64 valid drivers' licenses between them. How quick we forget!!!!

If we are hit again and it is found that the people were here illegally, I would be all in favor of impeachment from the top down.

[Pa' fuera]

There is NO law they won't break if it stands in the way of that objective.

same goes for mortgages - since the illegal can't qualify, or if he has a fake SSN and bad credit, he'll just rent the number of someone who has good credit.

[David M. Brooks]

BTTT

traviskicks--for your ping list?

As tax filing time approaches, and the US Senate contemplates giving millions illegal aliens green card status, this NYT's article from last year is highly relevant.

Besides identity fraud, aliens granted green card status are and will able to fraudulently collect social security benefits (as well as "legitimate" benefits), unemployment benefits, and engage in massive tax fraud.

From the article:

Since legal American residents can lose their green cards if they stay outside the country too long, for those who have returned to Mexico it is useful to have somebody working under their identity north of the border.

"There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season."

The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction. Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund.

"Sometimes the one who is working doesn't mind giving all the refund, he just wants to work," said Fernando Rosales, who runs a shop preparing income taxes in the immigrant-rich enclave of Huntington Park, Calif. "But others don't, and sometimes they fight over it. We see that all the time. It's the talk of the place during income tax time."

The income tax "refund" is almost certainly generated by Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) fraud, which as a "legal resident" the number renter would qualify to receive, especially if they have have or claim children. The EITC is a "refundable tax credit, which means the IRS will pay it out even if no taxes have been withheld or paid in. So the IRS gives filers who claim the EITC "refunds," even if they have had no taxes withheld. These number renters can claim up to $4,400 for the 2005 tax year in EITC "refunds," most of the number renters probably claim this maximum refund.

The Additional Child Tax Credit is another "refundable" credit which is no doubt routinely claimed by these renters.

For 2005, if the number renter claimed $14,400 in wage income, and three children, between the EITC and the Additional Child Tax Credit the renter would, without having any taxes withheld from wages, receive a tax "refund" of $4,898, plus have $892 credited to Social Security; in addition to the potential of thousands of dollars in California unemployment compensation.

The original NYT's link has expired, the full original text is found here:

Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

[MaineVoter2002]

When asked "Do you feel more safe now than you did 4 years ago?" The answer has to be "NO!" and it's a shame because it's all because of this issue. A no brainer issue. Illegal aliens and open borders. What a shame!

ELECTION 2006 LINKS

[ozarkgirl]

Thanks for that link, lots of links there to conservative organizations. I sent emails to both of my Senators thanking them for voting nay in the current "guest worker" proposal but still more needs to be done including building a fence/wall!

[television is just wrong]

I went on a people search, and found someone using my dead aunts social security number. she died at the age of 84, and this one is listed as 20.

[television is just wrong]

hey, if I rent mine out, can I reap the benes when I get ready to retire?

[television is just wrong]

china is another country that has been doing this.

[Calpernia]

How do you check SS#'s?

[spectre]

Charlie, I don't know how Bush can sleep at night with what he has done to encourage the Illegals.

He's turned his back on his own countrymen, IMO. I'm sick about it.

sw

[television is just wrong]

I did a people search, took it to the SS office.

These immigrants often use dead peoples ss#'s

and if you go to the offices in L.A., they are 100% minorities who run these offices.
They are not going to report their own kind...

[DumpsterDiver]

The original NYT's link has expired, the full original text is found here: Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

I think you forgot to type in the URL.

The trials and tribulations of Gerardo Luviano:

• In 1986 Luviano was in the U.S. [illegally] to visit his brother in California when the 1986 immigration law [amnesty] went into effect.

• Luviano "qualified" for amnesty when a farmer wrote a letter avowing Luviano had worked for months in his fields.

• Once he had his residence papers Luviano returned to Tlalchapa.

• He has entered the U.S. several times since then (using his fraudulantly obtained green card) mostly to renew his residence papers.

• In the 1990's, spurred by the chance to make a little extra money, he lent his Social Security number to his brother's friend. "I kept almost all the income tax refund," Luviano said.

• He stopped renting out his number when bills for purchases he had not made started arriving in his name at his brother's address. "You lend your number in good faith and you can get yourself in trouble," he said.

• However, Luviano is planning to rent out he SS # again. He knows that Social Security could provide retirement income down the line. And there's always the tax refund.

• "I haven't profited as much as I could from those documents," he said ruefully.

[David M. Brooks]

I think you forgot to type in the URL.

Oops...let's try that again:

Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

Another link to the same story:

Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

[DumpsterDiver]

Thanks, David.

[MaineVoter2002]

I'm not all that familiar as to how to search for ss#'s of those who are living but I do know you can find numbers of those who died. Now that I think of it, it would be a great data-base for future illegals in searching for a ss# that is not already taken (by somebody still alive). I found such a website (I think it's run by the federal government) in a geneology website.