Posted on 03/05/2006 12:15:18 PM PST by bkwells
MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials are complaining that a bill in Georgia's state legislature to tax the hundreds of millions of dollars that illegal immigrants wire home would unfairly hurt Mexicans working north of the border.
Sponsored by Republican lawmakers who charge that illegal immigrants use basic health and education services without contributing to them, the bill would force anyone unable to prove their legal status to pay tax on their wire transfers.
Mexicans living in the United States sent home about $20 billion to their families last year, more than all the foreign direct investment in the country and a major pillar of Mexico's economy, especially in poor areas.
Similar to a bill in Arizona's legislature, the Georgia measure has passed the state's lower house and is awaiting review in its Senate.
“The recently approved initiative . . . is unjust because it discriminates against people of Hispanic origin in general and Mexicans in particular,” Mexico's Foreign Ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry said it also was following the Arizona bill's progress and could take legal action should either proposal become law.
Finance Minister Francisco Gil slammed the bills last week, and a migrant representative said it was a foolhardy attack on workers he said were helping the economies of both countries.
“Unfortunately, this is a trend,” said Candido Morales, director of an institute for Mexicans living abroad. “Making life difficult for people who aren't legal, but who contribute to both the U.S. and Mexican economies.
While Georgia's bill would only tax illegal immigrants, Arizona's would tax all wire transfers out of the country.
Critics say that the laws would be ineffective, and that migrants would simply ship money home by less secure means.
Supporters of the bills in Georgia and Arizona argue that something must be done to salvage revenue from hundreds of millions of dollars they say slip out of their states untaxed.
“The reality is that a tremendous amount of undocumented illegal immigrants are in this country earing money and not paying any taxes,” said Rep. Calvin Hill, a Georgia Republican who sponsored his state's bill.
“They are utilizing the vast resources of the state but not financially contributing in any way,” said Hill, who estimated $1 billion was leaving the state every year in untaxed remittances from illegal immigrants alone.
Arizona officials said the money could beef up security along its border with Mexico. Hill said it would go into Georgia's indigent health care and education which illegal immigrants often use themselves.
“Now for the first time these people will have an opportunity to partially pay for these services,” Hill said. “This has nothing to do with being against immigrants.”
The Mexican-born population living in the United States is 9.9 million, according to figured cited by the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
Oh, boo hoo. My illegal earning got stolen. Are there no honest men left in this sad world?
Know anyone who has to file a claim on his own insurance because he was hit by an uninsured alien?
Capital idea.
Why should they be allowed to be tax cheats, in addition to illegal aliens.
A kid two blocks from me lost a perfectly good Fox Mustang, with many modifications, due to an illegal hitting him and having no insurance.
I support this bill.
I pay my taxes, I carry medical insurance, I pay my premiums and bills, and I do not use Medicare or Medicaid.
Illegals do indeed milk the system. It is more than fair to tax their wire transfers to diffray the costs they rack up. Hell, it is only the slightest start towards rational policy.
That Mexico protests essentially proves it is a damned good idea.
Not everyone who sends money out of the country is an illegal alien, as a matter of fact, the vast and overwhelming majority of monies wired out of the country are in the course of business transactions, my business buys from overseas...why should I pay more taxes than I already do on those transactions?
"And, where is your proof it won't do any good?"
Let's see...so they either send a little less money out, or they pay a little more to get it out. The better question is, why back something that will negatively impact a vast majority of law-abiding citizens just to minimally annoy illegal aliens?
By the way...what power does the State government have to force the citizen running the local Western Union place into the role of immigration official by demanding that he or she make an on-the-spot determination on the legal status of the person asking to purchase their service?
Sponsored by Republican lawmakers who charge that illegal immigrants use basic health and education services without contributing to them, the bill would force anyone unable to prove their legal status to pay tax on their wire transfers.
not everyone would be taxed: ONLY those "unable to prove their legal status"
why would you protest this?
WU will certainly be the first to squawk--they make a killing exploiting illegals.
I can't speak to the measure in the GA legislature, but the bill in Arizona exempts business to business transactions.
Proponents here admit that individual transactions could affect both legal and illegal aliens.
It would not affect citizens.
I dunno...what authority does the Federal government have to force the citizen running a gun store into the role of policeman by making him (or her) check my criminal background before engaging in his commerce?
Anything that makes Mexico screech is on the right track.
Just like anything that made the former Soviet Union screech was on the right track.
Twist the clamps a bit harder.. I want to hear them howl.
Vaya la arena de la libra.....
Sponsored by Republican lawmakers who charge that illegal immigrants use basic health and education services without contributing to them, the bill would force anyone unable to prove their legal status to pay tax on their wire transfers.
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This is stupid. Why not attack the socialism at its roots, it causes much more problems than simply illegals using services.
http://www.neoperspectives.com/secondaryproblemsofsocialism.htm
oh, yes... quite a few people, actually.
on this issue, at least, we seem to see eye to eye
That's a good question...we know that the service providers - Western Union, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America - charge fees for the transfers.
I've not seen anything regarding taxes/tariffs at the receiving end.
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen: [From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one, or both, of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture -- education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etcetera.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit, and eventually dismantle, the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Seems a couple of other Freepers answered your post, so I don't have to.
susie
Two wrongs make a right?
Who determines the difference between a citizen, a legal alien, and an illegal alien at the time and point of transaction, and how?
What law is out there that requires me to carry proper identification so that I can provide proof on demand to my immigration status?
And what would document would establish my legal immigration status, or yours for that matter, that we are required to carry with us at all times?
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