Posted on 03/06/2006 1:12:39 PM PST by Impeach98
You and I certainly agree on the employers part!
And, all the kids get their alcohol and cigarettes uder the table. Who are we kidding here ? You think someone under 21 can't get beer/alcohol if they want to ? An 17 year old can't get cigarettes ? You're kidding, right ?
I agree with you that this is part of the overall problem, but I'm wary of, again, creating an uregulated capital flow industry to the tune of 20B. If it worked in the outgoing direction, it could work the other way, as a far larger threat.
Like we don't have enough trouble tracking down terrorist money moved around using Hawala networks (simple google search will explain), we need to get the Mexicans in the same business ?
Seal the border, automated machine gun emplacements with overlapping fields of fire, a fence and a trench. Just have the border patrol drop off extra crates of ammo. Fine employers (25K per infraction ought to do it).
No, it's actually a very smart idea...for the government.
They find a new way to profit from illegal immigration by securing a new source of income, and dupe the rubes into thinking that they are "doing something about the problem of illegal aliens on our soil."
We get all the tyranny we demand.
Remember the IRCA?
It was going to "do something about the problem of illegal aliens on our soil" back in 1986?
IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.The IRCA was passed, we have more illegal aliens today, and the government gets more money from them.Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.
The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.
In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.
The are trying to get us to support their getting even more money now.
Tell them "no", demand that they enforce the laws already in place, using the taxes they already collect to do so.
It's what the U.S. Border Patrol accepts as proof of U.S. citizenship when entering this nation at the border checkpoints!
I remember the good old days of being asked for my ID - LOL.
Why would that happen if ALL the kids were having other people buy the money for them.
Think about it - how many people do you know would trust handing over $300 in cash to someone else to go wire it for them? Not going to happen execpt in the RAREST of cases.
This isn't the desperate 16 year old handing over $5-7 for a 6-pack.
"It sounds like you are cynical towards those who are against illegal immigration?!?"
Nope. I'm cynical towards those who SAY they are against illegal immigration but who do nothing real to prevent it. That group includes the entire federal government.
We have all the laws we need to stop illegal immigration. For example, it is illegal to hire illegal immigrants. Suppose we start prosecuting a few people in each county in the states that have a heavy illegal population. Let's start with the city councilman and his gardener or housekeeper. A little federal charge against him would send a message, doncha think?
Then we can bust a few homeowners down at the Home Depot when the illegal gets in their car to go dig the holes or whatever. A few nice little federal prosecutions should do the trick.
After that, we can take on a few larger businesses. We could start with the big chain restaurants. A little raid at the local Applebees and an arrest of the franchise owner should do the trick.
We repeat this in each county in the Southwest, then move into the other states with sizable illegal populations. It won't take too many arrests and trials before folks get a little hinky about hiring illegals, I'd think.
Nobody hiring? What's the point of coming? Perhaps you see my point.
For Pete's sake, illegal aliens are working all around you. When you go to the restaurant, the guy bussing your table, the guy washing the dishes, and probably some of the line cooks are illegals. Home Depot? Well, they're working out back. That thrift store you never go into down in the old shopping center. Nobody speaks English there.
Drive up to the tony district of town...you know...where people can afford gardeners. See the guy with the string trimmer? Let's arrest the homeowner.
Get real. We have to cut off the employment opportunities for these illegals. It's the only way its going to work. And the only way we're going to do that is to arrest some folks, try them, and give them some big fines or jail time.
Like I said, start with the city councilman or mayor, then check with your state legistlator. He's probably got a nice maid named Lupe and a gardener named Jesus working up there at the house. The nanny's name is Lyudmilla, and she's illegal, too.
You might want to check over in the next county, too, where your Congressman lives in that big house. See if you can get an invitation over by promising a nice, big contribution to his next campaign. Miguel, Lucinda, and Pepita work at his house. Pepita's the cute one who's carrying drinks around on a tray at the fundraiser. Wink at her. She blushes really nicely.
That's my suggestion. Am I cynical? You bet, and I know exactly why I'm cynical.
Yes, well, as you will note I said 90% of the time. Just a few years ago it was higher, but as the early-30's are slowly turning into the middle-thirties it's a bit less and less :)
Actually, I didn't. But feel free to pretend that I did if it makes you feel better.
Mere possession of money isn't illegal in and of itself. But LIVING HERE IS ILLEGAL.
And the folks living here illegally will give the money to a legal resident, who will then charge a handling fee and send the rest to Mexico via Western Union.
It's even more of a risk than the kid who gets a slap on the wrist for trying to buy the beer when they're 16 years old.
It's rather easy to see who is not legally able to possess alcohol or tobacco.
It's not nearly as easy to see who is not here legally. And a transaction that consists of Party A handing an envelope full of money to Party B is going to be almost impossible to detect.
Well this may be one way to push the constitutional issue of right for aliens illegally in the USA...imagine a conservative supreme court finally ruling those in this country illegally dont have the same rights as those here legally..
As for paypal, how do you set up a paypal account and send money without a credit card or bank account? How do you get a credit card without a bank account?
I guess another question is can you deposit money in a foreign bank account from within the US?
I've taken a couple vacations to Mexico and one to Belize. It was very easy to withdraw money from my bank account while I was there, but I never tried depositing money.
If illegal immigrants can simply use an ATM to deposit money into a Mexican bank account with an ATM card from a Mexican bank, then that's yet another way around this.
Your Home Depot citation is well cited. They have hiring halls to hire illegal immigrants and its impossible to get the border patrol to crack down on it!
Or we could just annex Mexico and tax all of them!
"Your Home Depot citation is well cited. They have hiring halls to hire illegal immigrants and its impossible to get the border patrol to crack down on it!"
Of course. Why would be Border Patrol want to bother those workers? It's not in "the best interests of the economy," doncha see? They're doing "the jobs Americans won't do."
How on earth would all that drywalling get done without illegals. American workers? No way. That's damn hard work. So, you pay some illegals by the sheet and they get that drywall up real quicklike.
The ICE is not busting these illegals because they've been told not to. The question is: who told them not to? Get the answer to that one and you'll find the real source of the problem.
Just google the Hawala. You'll see what I mean. They built the networks/business based on trust. Its the same like in any business - you get your customers to trust you, and charge a fee. Simple.
So if I'm unscroupulous, a I could set up a money transfer service just like that. It wouldn't go through any banks or financial institutions. Nor mail. And I could charge a fee perhaps a bit bigger than what the wire costs now, but still affordable. Considering how much enforcement there is for any of this, it'd be free money. *That* crime would *pay*. Handsomely. Especially 'cause there'd be nothing to prove. Actually I'm not sure if it would be/could be made even a crime.
No! If it can be shown that the transfers are illegal, you confiscate them, you don't tax them.
We shouldn't be taxing money transfers because some portion of them are illegal. That ends up encouraging our government to not address the problems, because addressing the problems costs them revenues.
Taxing wire transferrs to attempt to address this is a very, very bad idea.
Require identification. Make it harder to send illegally earned money this way, but taxing it is a horrible idea.
It's definately not happening enough. However, I thin the Real Id Act will actually help some because it gives employers a way to verify that the employee is legally in the country. It therefore removes the excuse that the employer reasonably didn't know or couldn't easily find out without possible violating our strange equal opportunity laws.
Lots of little pieces are starting to come together to help make enforcement more practical.
There is fraud that goes on and none of the solutions will solve all of the problem.
People are not asked for ID today because it isn't required. If wire transfers require proof of citizenship, i.e. drivers license or passport for example, then they would ask.
If they are asked, most illegals will have to find another way -- making it harder to be illegal, which is the goal.
By putting in disincentives, you have a greater chance of discouraging the behavior. That is the reason we want to make entry more difficult and erode away the benefits of being here illegally.
The goal is not to be hateful, but to encourage the lawful immigation into this country.
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