Note: This fictional account is an accurate depiction of the harm that illegal aliens are doing to millions of American children. Any resemblance in this account to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
Years ago, Kinara Matuaki of Nairobi, Kenya traveled to Utah on a tourist visa to attend a major religious conference. Upon entering the U.S., an inspector of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), placed a small card in Kinara's passport. On the card, the inspector recorded a specific date and informed Kinara that he had to leave the United States on or before that date. He also reminded Kinara that he was not authorized to work in the United States. Kinara told the inspector that he fully understood and that he was honor bound to leave as required.
However, after just a few days in Utah, Kinara decided that he was not going to return to Kenya where unemployment stood at 40 percent, per capita income was less than $1,000 per year, and life expectancy was only 50 years.
Although he had a wife and a child still in Nairobi and a job that paid $100 per month, Kinara knew that if stayed in the United States, he could make an even better life for himself and his family.
In order to get a job, he needed documents, so he purchased a Social Security card and a drivers license from a fraudulent documents dealer for $50. Both documents carried his own name and he didn't know that the Social Security number that was on his card already belonged to a six-month-old American girl, Susie.
Using the fraudulently obtained Social Security card and driver's license, Kinara quickly found a job that paid $140 per week. Later, using the same fraudulent documents, he took a second job driving taxi at night. In both cases, he entered the information from his false documents on an I-9 form under penalty of perjury.
Within a year, through hard work and lots of overtime, Kinara had enough money saved to bring his wife (Eddah) and teenage son (Oginga) to Utah. Being unable to get United States visas, Eddah and Oginga traveled to Canada. For a fee of $3,000, a smuggling ring got them across the border and shortly thereafter they were reunited with Kinara.
Once in Utah, just like Kinara had done earlier, Eddah and Oginga quickly obtained false documents in their own names including Social Security numbers that belonged to two other American children – Aaron, age 10, the son of an American-born janitor, and Maria age 8, the child of a first-generation legal immigrant from Peru. And just like Kinara, they were now committing major felonies under a combination of federal and Utah laws – document fraud, perjury on an I-9 form, and identity fraud.
The Matuaki family quickly integrated into the community and joined a church. They were, by all appearances, a model family. Those who knew that the Matuakis were illegally in the United States were not concerned because they had always been told that illegal immigrants were only trying to make a better life for themselves without hurting anyone else.
Eddah worked in one of the best hotels in the city as a housekeeper using Aaron's Social Security number, and Oginga used Maria's Social Security number to get part-time work at grocery stores and fast-food outlets.
When Oginga eventually graduated from high school, he attended a state university under Utah's in-state tuition program for illegal aliens. In order to pay for his tuition, he worked nights as a waiter in a private club still using the Social Security number that belonged to Maria.
He finally earned a degree in electrical engineering, but when he graduated he was unable to get a professional job using his fraudulent documents. He, therefore, continued to use Maria's Social Security number to get low-paying, unskilled jobs with employers who didn't verify his identity or authorization to work in the United States.
Over the years, the Matuaki family obtained credit cards, purchased cars on credit, and obtained bank loans. For a period of time Kinara was without work and he defaulted on several loans. During that time, neither he nor Eddah filed an income tax return, although Eddah continued to work. In addition, Eddah had taken out numerous credit cards in her name and she missed payments on at least a dozen occasions.
After purchasing a small condominium with a loan from a Utah bank that openly solicited the business of illegal aliens, Oginga was unable to make the payments and lost it in a foreclosure action.
Eventually, Susie, Maria, and Aaron -- the real owners of the Social Security numbers used by the Matuakis -- graduated from high school. All three went on to college. When they tried to obtain internet service in their own names, they were denied because their credit histories had been destroyed by the Matuaki family. For the first time, they became aware that their identities had been stolen.
When they tried to get student loans, they were not able to qualify because of their bad credit.
When they tried to get financial assistance, the were denied because the income earned under their Social Security numbers by Kinara, Eddah, and Oginga made it impossible for them to qualify.
When Aaron, the janitor's son, applied for an internship with the U.S. Department of State to help fulfill his dream of becoming a diplomat, he was not able to obtain a security clearance in a timely manner due to a poor credit history and because IRS records showed that he had an outstanding tax liability for the money earned by Eddah on his Social Security number.
The families of all three American children were thrown into a panic and lives were severely disrupted. The children had to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to recover their good names which had been destroyed by the Matuaki family.
Aaron's father took a second janitorial job in order to hire an attorney to help clean up the damage that Eddah had done to his son's credit history and to get the IRS to finally acknowledge that Aaron was not responsible for paying taxes on the money earned by Eddah. However, by the time everything was done, Aaron's dream of becoming a diplomat had evaporated.
Susie was able to use her father's political influence to get a U.S. Senator to intervene on her behalf with the credit bureaus and her credit history was eventually cleared so she was able to get her student loan and a new car.
As the daughter of a single mother, a first-generation legal immigrant from Peru, Maria simply didn't have the resources to clear her credit history. So rather than going to college, she took a low-paying job in a convenience store, got married at age 19, and was divorced, with a child, at age 21.
A system that is built on lies and deception harms all those that it touches. No matter how well-intentioned illegal aliens are, they inevitably harm millions of American men, women, and children every day.
Our political leaders have allowed this to happen and continue to encourage and condone it.
"Comprehensive immigration reform" would give Kinara, Eddah, and Oginga a path to citizenship, a new Social Security number, and would grant the Matukis full amnesty from the felonies they have been committing in order to obtain jobs.
At the same time, "comprehensive immigration reform" would knowingly and deliberately ignore the American citizens who have had their dreams turned into nightmares by the Matuaki family and the millions of other illegal aliens just like them.
American citizens and legal residents would be left on their own to recover their credit histories and to undo all of the other problems they have been saddled with by illegal aliens.
They would have to do this at their own expense with no help from the U.S. government, which would prohibit any information about the illegal aliens' criminal activities from being made available to law enforcement agencies or to the victims of their crimes.
Congress will, however, ensure that the government collects a small fine and some back taxes and closes its eyes to the injustices done to ordinary working Americans and their families.
Isn't it time that Congress started looking out for the well-being of American citizens and legal residents rather than rewarding criminal illegal aliens with a path to citizenship?
