Reply from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver concerning OrphanWorksActof 2008

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Tue, 8/12/08, Jon Pruente <jdpruente at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 4:14 PM, Jeffrey Watts
> <jeffrey.w.watts at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I don't get what your anecdote about IHOP means. 
> So because you saw someone
> > you _suspect_ was illegal simply because he didn't
> speak English (huh?)
> > working at a job where he made minimum+ wages, then
> therefore illegals
> > aren't doing low-paid work anywhere?

> The point i was responding to was one of letting the 
> illegals wwork the low paying jobs so they can pay 
> taxes, and also that they are working jobs regular
> Americans won't do.  Both of which are false.

Actually the former isn't exactly false, at least for most illegal immigrants.  As they've already done something illegal, but victimless, by jumping a border fence instead of going through legal channels, many of them have slightly reduced standards of ethics (again, regarding the victimless crimes).  Thus some of them acquire the Social Security numbers of people who are dead (a victimless crime), and others acquire fake Social Security numbers (another victimless crime).

This means that employers take a portion of these illegal immigrants' wages  and send them off in the form of F.I.C.A. (Social Security) and Medicare payroll taxes.  As the illegal immigrant cannot ever benefit from Social Security, these taxes are free money for all former employees drawing Social Security checks and using Medicare medical insurance.

I have heard figures as high as 10% (but never below 1%) for the amount of the Social Security and Medicare funding coming from employees with fake or otherwise suspect Social Security numbers, many of whom are illegal immigrants.

Another important detail is that the Social Security Administration is somewhat complicit in this "free money from illegal immigrant labor" scheme, as they also issue Personal Tax Information Numbers, or PTINs.  A person with a PTIN elects to pay money into Social Security and Medicare but never receive any of it back.  PTINs are currently being used in place of Social Security numbers in many illegal immigrant communities (a use the SSA claims isn't the way they are meant to be used).

Because illegal immigrants have a default rate equal to and in some cases lower than the average U.S. citizen, many banks are lending money to illegal immigrants so that they can buy houses and cars while they are here in the U.S.A.  They use their PTINs to gain approval for the loans.

So in many ways the illegal immigrants aren't just sending money home, they're keeping the money in the U.S. economy and making it grow.  While I still cannot condone the practice of illegal immigration, most of them arrive here and immediately begin living like good U.S. citizens, even though they cannot benefit from the same government largess that U.S. citizens receive.