Posted on 02/01/2002 10:47:45 PM PST by Bayou City
Feb. 1, 2002, 9:48PM
Workers hope IRS has their number
Undocumented immigrants sign up for tax rolls
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
CONROE -- The overflow crowd stretched out the church door and into the parking lot, where the line formed for hundreds of illegal immigrants hoping to become legal U.S. taxpayers.
After a wait outside of an hour or more, participants at the seminar this week filled out a government form, presented their Mexican or Central American identification and then met with an IRS agent.
Nearly 500 signed up for the document known as an individual taxpayer identification number after being assured their information would not be shared with immigration agents.
Some in line said they hope paying taxes legally would be the first step of legalizing their U.S. stay. Others say taxes are already taken automatically from their paycheck, and they hope to get some back through a refund check.
"I want to be recognized," said one Spanish-speaking woman who identified herself only as a clerk. "I've been paying taxes for three years."
With 7 million to 8 million people now working illegally in this country, the Internal Revenue Service has quietly begun trying to register them as taxpayers.
Since 1996, the government has offered a taxpayer ID number to anyone who cannot obtain a Social Security number -- typically because they are working in the country illegally.
Local IRS agents now offer grants and seminars designed to get illegal immigrants officially registered on the tax rolls.
"The more of these we do, the more people come in," said IRS representative Leandro Leon, who has organized the seminars promoted by Spanish-language television and held at churches that attract Latin American immigrants. "I guess people are losing their fear of the INS."
Houston is not the only city with a surge in applications. The IRS reports that 5.3 million people have obtained a taxpayer ID number since 1996, though officials cannot say how many are illegal immigrants (foreigners living overseas who file U.S. taxes use the same type of ID number).
Not all the immigrant outreach is so amicable. Some illegal immigrants say the IRS has aggressively attempted to collect back taxes.
IRS representatives defend their efforts to enroll undocumented workers without reporting them to immigration authorities. They say their mandate is to collect the taxes from those who work rather than to determine who has the right to work.
"One requirement of the tax law is that people have to report their taxes, even if the money comes illegally," said Don Roberts, an IRS spokesman in Washington. "A person could report millions of dollars from drug dealing and we can't share that information with the DEA."
Congress set up the law so taxpayers who accurately report their income to the IRS can be assured the information will never be shared with other government agencies. Even law-abiding citizens would be reluctant to report their income if that information could be passed around among bureaucrats in Washington, Roberts reasons.
But critics say the taxpayer ID number system clearly indicates the government is no longer interested in enforcing immigration laws.
"It doesn't make sense," said Roy Beck, head of Numbers USA, a group that opposes high immigration levels. "The federal government is saying: "You are breaking the law and shouldn't be working, but now that you are working, we will give you this number that makes it easier for you to work.' "
A person cannot legally work in the United States without a Social Security card. But that doesn't stop millions from working anyway.
Some illegal immigrants are paid in cash never reported to the government. But perhaps millions of others obtain false Social Security cards or borrow others' Social Security numbers. Employers sometimes pay taxes on these workers' earnings.
The proliferation of false Social Security numbers frustrates the government tax people.
"We kept finding cases like the 90-year-old woman listed as working as a stevedore at the Port of Houston," said Leon.
No one knows how much immigrants pay in taxes every year, though plenty of experts have tried to guess.
A few years ago, retired Rice University professor Donald Huddle found in a study for a conservative group that immigrants cost the government $69 billion a year because they use more in services than they pay in taxes.
Liberal groups attacked Huddle's oft-quoted study as inaccurate and based on false assumptions. Urban Institute demographer Jeff Passel found a different answer.
"If you look at this in terms of a lifetime, an immigrant contributes more than he or she uses," Passel said. "But in the short run, there are costs."
That's a sentiment shared by Alejandro, an undocumented carpenter from rural Fort Bend County with a wife and two kids who pays $185 in IRS back taxes every month. The Mexican native, who won't give his last name, says he was approached on the job a few years ago by government agents wondering why he had a false Social Security number.
The IRS now calculates Alejandro owes about $4,000, according to documents. He is dutifully paying the money, he says.
Alejandro said he gets angry every time he sees American politicians arguing on Spanish-language TV that immigrants don't pay taxes.
"We come here to work. We don't come here to be fed," he said.
This is an excellent point, and a core reason Free Trade, in the end, is a loser for America.
How do FT'ers think the millions of third world people feel about Americans as they work their 18 hour days for pennies, sewing our new PJ's in some sweat factory?
Talk about the Ugly American.
FT is an economic " petre dish" for future anti-American terrorists.
Might be an incentive to sign up to "PAY" income taxes.
At least we know there's a list over in the IRS's computers of some prime candidates for deportation.
There's an ongoing scam whereby these identity sellers con people into giving them all ther personal information in return for the promise that their driving records, criminal records or tax records will be 'cleaned up'.
I guess this con-game must be working.
It isn't just the immigration laws, though those are perhaps the most blatant. It's the fact that when they do enforce the laws, they often do it selectively. The DUI laws, for example. How many judges and cops and prosecutors turn some guy's life upside down for a .08 DUI when they are just as guilty of the same offense but never get arrested for it because of "professional courtesy"?
And I haven't forgotten all the laws that were broken by the House under Rosty. You and I would go to jail for writing bad checks.
I wasn't arguing your point. I'm just saying that I've been asking the same question for a while now.
That is kind of an extreme thing to say. If true, what has America become when you must sit around and do nothing until you acquire that precious SS card that somehow makes it OK to work? This has to be a mistake. I recall some boy sued Taco Bell for refusing to hire him for not having a SSN. The boy won and they had to hire him. So I think you can work without a SS card. But it should not take a lawsuit to make it happen. Something is seriously wrong with this country. Up is down and down is up.
Yes. Some of their legal friends and relatives told them about this wonderful welfare program through the IRS.
That is kind of an extreme thing to say. If true, what has America become when you must sit around and do nothing until you acquire that precious SS card that somehow makes it OK to work?
As I understand it, the IRS requires parents to get a social security number for their children at a very early age (I believe it's 2 years old, but not sure). No number, no deduction for the rug-rat.
This has been in effect for quite some time.
I used to have a co-worker, a single mom, that world get her refund with the EITC as early as possible. And then take a ski vacation. This EITC is supposed to help cover the cost of her raising the kid. Yea, right.
I think that the power structure knows this and is all in favor of it, even the guys who used to be against it. When Sam Brownback talks about the United States being the third largest country behind China and India, he means it. So what if we don't like it? Democracy failed. 80% of the people are against continued mass immigration, but the laws have it on autopilot, and since no politician wants to appear "anti-immigrant" (they vote, don't wanna be called racist, etc), no throttling of the system is possible.
I think they know all this, and have decided that it's a good thing, and they're just trying to manage the friction (like Sept. 11) with police state tactics. Eventually, with 400-500 million people, an army of mmmmmmmm, 4 - 5 million special forces types and hi-tech weaponry, and they (or their children) will be sitting on top of the biggest empire ever. Voting will be considered a joke that appeases the credulous - real power will continue to reside with the created oligarchs.
The New Immigration Police State, in a new Rome with Nukes.
Excellent question Travis. I think our government gave up any pretenses of applying the law in a uniform fashion years ago. Now, they don't even try to hide it. What a slap in the face to the law abiding citizens of America. Our own government aiding and abetting illegal aliens so they can break more of our laws and vote in our elections! Can you say TREASON? This is disgusting beyond words.
Let me get this straight. You want some Joe Sixpack to harrass the investigative arm of the very agency that has ordered its employees to break the law. Well, I guess we know who will be "randomly" audited this year, don't we?
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