In U.S. Illegally, But Still Paying Taxes

Controversy Swirls Over IRS' Acceptance Of Illegal Immigrants' Tax Returns

(AP)  Carlos Diaz broke the law when he crossed the border and took a job as an office janitor. But he's not about to break another by failing to pay his income tax.

"I've been talking to other people who've done it, and I want to follow the law," said Diaz, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who squirmed in his seat at a neighborhood tax preparer's office.

Tuesday is Tax Day, when millions of illegal immigrants find themselves collaborating with one federal agency — the Internal Revenue Service — while trying to avoid another — Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They hope a track record of on-time payments will aid their citizenship applications, but critics who favor tougher enforcement of federal immigration rules say it's absurd for the government to work with people it should be tracking down and deporting. It legitimizes the presence of immigrants who are here illegally, critics say, and sends a mixed message about the country's interest in enforcing its own rules.

"The word schizophrenic comes to mind," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a research firm that advocates tighter immigration enforcement. "There is something fundamentally wrong about this."

The IRS created a nine-digit Individual Tax Identification Number in 1996 for foreigners who don't have Social Security numbers but need to file taxes in the U.S. But it is increasingly used by undocumented workers to file taxes, apply for credit, get bank accounts or even buy a home.

The IRS issued 1.5 million ITINs in 2006 — a 30 percent increase from the previous year. To obtain one, a person needs to submit to the IRS an application and a document that serves as proof of identity, such as a visa or driver's license. All told, the tax liability of ITIN filers between 1996 and 2003 was $50 billion. The agency has no way to track how many were immigrants, but it's widely believed most people using ITINS are in the United States illegally.

One number hints at the number of illegal immigrants having income taxes deducted from their paychecks.

In 2004, the IRS got 7.9 million W-2s with names that didn't match a Social Security Number. More than half were from California, Texas, Florida and Illinois, states with large immigrant populations, leading experts to believe they likely represent the wages of illegal immigrants. Even immigrants who use ITINs to file taxes are forced to make up a Social Security Number when they get a job.

Critics like Dinerstein believe the process makes room for law violators, and in some cases, might endanger the country by allowing them to operate more freely.

"That's why people who are living here illegally rushed to get ITINS like they're chocolate candy," said Dinerstein. "It's a national security issue."

IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis said the ID numbers are issued strictly to track a tax return's progress through the system, noting the tax code says nothing about whether foreigners filing taxes are here legally or not.

[bourbon83]

I like that idea llalley. I'd bet many politicians would actually use it though to exploit cheap labor, and to make sure they have a clean house to come home to. I'd love to see them allow some of these gang bangers to live with them. ha. Frankly we just need to enforce the law. Tatoo them when we pick them up, send them home, and if we catch them back here with their identifying tatoo it's an instant two year's in jail. Then all jail-mates no matter what race they are, can get their butts out to the fields to do the labor the illegals do. Earn their keep. The farmers pay the state, and a portion of that money goes to victims harmed by the inmates. Welfare should be merged with Unemployment. If you don't pay into it, you can't draw from it. Also it only last for 6 months when you need to draw from it. Once you draw you have to work and pay into it for a long time before you can ever draw again. If people decide to live on Welfare they can meet at a warehouse, Where names a-e become daycare providers, the rest get bussed out to the fields and other community service to work for their checks. No work no pay! No need for illegal labor!

[llalley]

In an addition to my last note. I think that if any U.S citizen is willing to sponsors an illegal Alien in their home. They should be willing to do so without a Criminal background check and they have to allow them to stay in their home for a years and be willing to be legally responsible for their %u201CGuests%u201D actions during that year. After the year is over and it has been DOCUMENTED that these people have lived in their home for a year. Then and only then can they get a Green card to work and then get a chance within 5 years to become a Citizen. Oh yes and anyone in Government office that wants these people in this country without the proper papers. They must allow a Illegal family to live with them the whole time they are in public office, or they forfeit the right to said office.

[llalley]

Tell you what, all the people whom think that anyone who wants to come in this country without a criminal back ground check first, and be allowed to work here ,I would like to ask you a question. One in which I don't want evaded.

Would YOU be so willing to allow these people in your home with your family for a year, without a back ground check? If so then let come on in and stay with the family's that are crying for them to be allowed to stay.... As for me, not unless they have a back ground check done should they be allowed to stay.

[realpatriot1]

The truth is there are illegal aliens who fit the profile of loving this country and wanting to contribute to it and there are others that fit the profile described by bourbon83.

we need a system that will allow guest workers to be here while their labor is needed and allow them to seek citizenship, to make sure that they and their employers are paying into the system, and to assure that American citizens and legal immigrants go to the front of the hiring line.

The ability to do something about this problem begins with the practices of the employers. We need to be able to bring in labor that's needed in a process that's legal and to be sure that the people being hired are part of that process.
The answer isn't to say that you can't work while seeking to obtain citizenship.

[abbe7]

Yet another proof that if you want to fight illegal
immigration, that's the businesses hiring them that you have to target, not the immigrants themselves but the people exploiting cheap labour.
For some reason, this administration is unwilling to go that way.

[bourbon83]

[They are helping fund his folly, the Iraq war. This president is so evil and law-breaking, I cannot understand why the Congress will not impeach him.]

That's a huge laughable liberal leap! You're only repeating what the liberal yuppie bobble head dolls tell you to think. He cannot be impeached until he actually breaks the law. If he actually did break the law, don't you think the liberal congress would be all over it. Instead of just running their mouths with spins, and empty rhetoric trying to misguide you gullable sheep? I don't agree with Bush on this issue either so save the neocon comments. Maybe we should draft all the illegals, make them kick butt in Iran, Syria, and Iraq. Then the ones that make it back give them citizenship. 2 problems solved.

[bourbon83]

[IS THAT WHAT YOU HATERS ARE OS PROUD OF?

You know if we say we don't tolerate serial killers, you would call us haters! That's all your ilk knows how to spew. Haters! Liars! Nazi's! Do they publish that in the "Liberal Guide to Anarchy"? I've never enslaved anybody, and I haven't slaughtered any Native Americans. So stuff the ***. Maybe if the Native Americans would have stopped the first ship from landing they would not of been overrun. We should learn from that lesson, and not allow it to happen to us. One hand you libs hate America, then on the other claim we should be the savior to all. You must spend a lot of time in conflict with yourself, always kicking your own ***. I have mex freinds here legally, who have worked, and earned their way without handouts. They feel the same way about the wave of illegals pouring in here. I respect them. I do not respect the illegals who laugh at and mock our country, all the while raping it. I see new cars setting in their driveway, dirtbikes in the yard, as their kids march by my window all summer long to get a free breakfast from our school. At the taxpayer expense. While some work in ag, they get cash, they buy with cash and pay no taxes! The few that do will never pay enough to begin covering the large debt they've created. They commit serious crimes then run back to their country. At least when they enter legally, they know their rights will be pulled if they commit a felony. That is good incentive to be nice.

[me4prezz]

Yes me4prezz I've been homeless
yes been hungry, just trying to pay these taxes
{income} I am disabled & no I don't get *** for help. So you shut up.
Posted by Slim1H2O at 05:50 PM : Apr 13, 2007

Then I apologize. However, there are genuinely people who are on the system who need it. They are just overshadowed by the ones who abuse it. That makes it difficult to know who the ones that are really trying to change are and the ones who just don't want to work and are using it as a free ride are. That was my point and I got too hot-headed to make it clearly. I apologize for that.

[me4prezz]

I believe that we should take in the illegal immigrants and bill the countries from whence they came for shelter, health care, food, education, etc. A form of foster care if you will. If the countries they are leaving are so bad that they cannot continue to live there, then we will take the money the country would have paid for them and use it to help there here.

[krotec54]

This is Mexico's fault that is causing the problem. They cannot find jobs for their own citizens. Mexico should be training their citizens for jobs that the world market wants, not untrained and unable to communicate to.

[slim1h2o]

Yes me4prezz I've been homeless
yes been hungry, just trying to pay these taxes
{income} I am disabled & no I don't get *** for help. So you shut up.

[slim1h2o]

Yet I can't get workmans comp,
Go figure

[besscannon-2009]

I see all this as figuring if you put a bandaid on a festering sore it will make it okay. It is still going to fester until you do something to heal the infection. What is wrong with everybody thay can't see the problem here? No wonder Bush wants to give them amnesty. They are helping fund his folly, the Iraq war. This president is so evil and law-breaking, I cannot understand why the Congress will not impeach him.
They did Clinton for telling ONE lie, Bush has a whole, overstuffed bag of them he has told us to screw this country up. Clinton just embarrassed himself and his family, he didn;t endanger the country or told us a whole slew of bold faced lies with a fiendish grin. Have we lost our guts and sense of right? We are governed by crooks and wimps. Someone better do something soon or USA is going down the drain and our Democracy will just be a memory.

[me4prezz]

Hey me4prezz
I see it all the time with my own eyes
not the news & no not sterotyping.
You should heed your own advice
Posted by Slim1H2O at 05:25 PM : Apr 13, 2007

I do and I see the hard-working single mothers who use their food stamps to put food on the table for their children while working 2 or 3 jobs and going to school at night. I see the mother at the corner holding a sign asking for work to feed her family and I took her shopping for food and I saw, with my own eyes, what had happened and listened to her story.

I agree there are bad people illegally entering the US, but there are bad people already in the US who are legal. What makes Americans so superior to the rest of the world? What makes Americans so sure that we are right and the rest are wrong? What makes you so special that you can automatically assume the worst of a child because you see food stamps in their hands? Have you ever gone hungry because you couldn't afford food? Have you ever been homeless? Have you ever tried your hardest to make a better world for your children, if you even have them, and fall flat on your face because the people in this world keep taking and taking and taking and that leaves the ones who are poor even worse off while the rich rake in their millions?!

I didn't think so. Shut up.

[me4prezz]

BIRTH STATISTICS 380,000 plus %u201Canchor babies%u201D were born in the U.S. in 2005 to illegal alien parents, making 380,000 babies automatically U.S.citizens.

97.2% of all costs incurred from those births were paid by the American taxpayers.

66% plus of all births in California are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers

[slim1h2o]

Thanks for posting those stats,
to paraphrase a great American........
And thats the way it is, this april 13 07

[me4prezz]

75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque are illegal aliens.

24.9% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

40.1% of all inmates in Arizona detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

48.2% of all inmates in New Mexico detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally

29% (630,000) convicted illegal alien felons fill our state and federal prisons at a cost of $1.6 billion annually

53% plus of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Texas are perpetrated by illegal aliens.

50% plus of all gang members in Los Angeles are illegal aliens from south of the border.

71% plus of all apprehended cars stolen in 2005 in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California were stolen by Illegal aliens or %u201Ctransport coyotes".

47% of cited/stopped drivers in California have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 47%, 92% are illegal aliens.

63% of cited/stopped drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 63%, 97% are illegal aliens

66% of cited/stopped drivers in New Mexico have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 66% 98% are illegal aliens.

[slim1h2o]

Hey me4prezz
I see it all the time with my own eyes
not the news & no not sterotyping.
You should heed your own advice

[me4prezz]

Here are the stats I found, as much as I hate to put them out there...these are all I could find. But I do believe there are individuals truly trying to improve their life, but the ones that are giving a bad name are the drug smugglers and prostitution ring leaders, etc.

INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants

2006 (First Quarter) INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants

CRIME STATISTICS 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix are for illegal aliens.

86% of warrants for murder in Albuquerque are for illegal aliens.

[me4prezz]

Redhoffer you couldn't be more wrong,
Mexicans, legal or otherwise commit more crimes than anybody, per capita. Just read the news, its all there.
Every time I to the food store I'm always behind a illeagal with kids a cart full & paying with a state check, NICE, thats BS
Posted by Slim1H2O at 04:49 PM : Apr 13, 2007

And you stereotype to the Nth degree, which is even worse. You cannot assume that because what is being flashed all over the news as news (which would you choose as an editor of a news show or newspaper...the *** that people will read and eat up like candy or stories that people don't want to hear equating into less money in sales???) is truth.

Walk around and open your eyes and really look...do not just see. The most blind people in the world are those that can see, but never really look. Perhaps that child you see has parents that are working hard, but just can't make ends meet...like the millions of other human beings around the world. That is true whether you are Caucasian, African American, Latino, or a two-toed purple buck-toothed sloth.

At least these people are paying their taxes...more than we can so for millions of legal Americans.