I know natural-born US citizens who have worked on dead people’s SS #'s while drawing SS on their own.
I had my illegal nanny provide me with a SS card which I photocopied. The IRS sent me a couple of notices regarding a “discrepancy” with their records, but I sent them the copy and they stopped asking. I’m pretty sure it was a real SS card with her name on it (I used to work in the garment district down near the border, and we had tons of illegals sewing for us- fakes usually look pretty fake).
She also had an apartment and all her illegal kids went to school (did quite well, actually). They and her illegal husband had cars, DLs, and paid taxes. I also paid the employer portion on her salary.
It was mentioned upthread but bears repeating- she will never file a claim to get those monies back. That is free money for the gov’t.
Her family also didn’t seem to be scamming anyone, really- when the kids were sick, they paid cash at a walk-in clinic, like I did. They weren’t getting “free” anything- they were working their collective asses off (including the kids) because they knew how much better they had it up here.
And yes, they did try to “get legal”- a lawyer up here scammed them for a few grand over the course of several months, then bailed without providing any of the paperwork. So they gave up.
Forgot to add- you can buy papers (DL, SS, birth certificate, whatever) on the street in LA, literally. Reporters from the local stations show up periodically and tape the transactions.
I could have a brand-new identity in less than 90 minutes for less than $1000, IIRC.
Pish posh. Many illegals do file a return asking for a for refund and in fact the IRS cracked down on illegals using their kids still in Mexico for inflated EITC claims. Of course, maybe your Nanny didn’t, bu it is still common for illegals to file 1040’s and get refunds. In fact in Salinas, Wastonville and other cities the IRS also cracked down on “Questionable Preparers”: Tax return preparers that did almost nothing but file returns for Illegals and requesting large EITC refunds. My Brother (an Enroled Agent) got some of those poor dudes as clients. The IRS is prohibited by Federal law from telling the INS/ICE if the IRS learns a Taxpayer is an Illegal. Disclosure Law.
Pish posh? “Many illegals do file a return” – HA! Why don’t you just go ahead and name one or two or three?
Where? When? Who? REALLY? That would be news to the other 99.9% who aren’t that STUPID. No freakin’ way.
Oh I see –
In theory? Yeah – maybe, but in practice? No way. You have obviously never been on the wrong side of THAT gun.
That’s right, my nanny didn’t file because she KNEW she had bogus number. The tax guys you are talking about sound like predators, they probably took a HUGE chunk from the tax returns, from simple bumpkins in the dust bowl (Salinas, Wastonville). The SS# holder got pennies in return with big promises of CASH, and the whole scam was so STUPID that everyone involved got BUSTED. But what about the other 10 million people here who see a scam for a scam? You need to remember, we are not just talking about Mexicans who come to California. The ways and means of getting something better than minimum wage (or less) and KEEPING it are fairly complicated. If you were in those shoes would you trust some buffoon to “do your taxes”? Not if you had a brain in your head, and trust me – most of them do.
Poor dirt farmers who come up here with the promise of making better than pennies a day don’t have the experience to know when the are being had. And if you don’t believe me, spend some time in the out back of Mexico, or Guatemala, or Bihia – go live in a Favela for a while, this lot are RIPE for scammers like you mention, and the scammers KNOW it.
So, maybe SOME aliens file a return, but the ones who want to stay here never do. Befriend, oh say, 30 or 40 of them get involved in their communities and when you have their trust – just ask.
Please report back with your field report post haste, I know LOTS of people who would LOVE to hear how THIS works. Awww RIGHT! File for a tax return and NOT risk getting deported?!? Hell yeah! They would LOVE to know how this works!
Like I said, the IRS did a major crackdown on Illegal aliens claiming their still in Mexico kids for EITC some 20 years ago. My Bro worked many of those cases himself.
And they will fire IRS employees who disclose. Why would dudes risk their jobs?
But anyway, even if it is not a scam, my Bro still did thousands of returns for Illegals, and nearly every one of them got almost all their with-holding back anyway - since you can claim your dependents in Mexico for the purpose of a dependent allowance. It was a simple tax reyrun, charged $50 and most of them got $1000 or more back. Why do you assume that Illegals are idiots? They are just as smart as the average dude, and anyone can make that calculation, and file for that legit refund.
And if illegals do not file, they do face deportation for that.
Do you have a cite that most illegals do not file a tax return?
There is a town called Hazelton, Pennsylvania that passed a law forbidding all landlords to rent to aliens without a legit social security number and drivers license. In turn, what this did was to pretty much force all Spanish business’ to close their doors and and all illegal immigrants to move out out of the area. Some said it was racism in disguise, some said “hey, they’re illegal, fuck’em.” Here is a story about Hazelton. Here is the actual law.
and I also think that a Federal Judge either tried to stop this or did stop this from happening. I didn’t read the article, nor have I kept up on the story, but Here it be…
My wife is a leasing agent at an apartment complex that gets illegals coming through quite a bit. Typically one comes in to get the apartment and plans to have others living there without notice.
Or, as happened recently, the SSN’s they were shown popped up as deceased when they ran the credit report.
They typically catch (deny) 5-10 illegals a month.
Why? Every one I know has been a honest, hardworking dude who pays his bills. True, you will have to keep a close watch on how many dudes live there, but they are generaly good people.
Because it’s illegal, and Tennessee keeps threatening to pass a bill to fine landlords who rent to illegals.
Because that may be your experience, they’ve had problems with people living in apartments who aren’t on the lease. Cleaning issues, apartments being trashed, etc.
Typically they can’t pass the credit check with their papers. This apartment complex runs credit checks on everyone that’s going to sign the lease. That’s where it’s typically caught.
While I do not demonize illegal aliens like many here in middle Tennessee do, I do not have much sympathy either. I have personal experience with three different people who wanted to stay in this country and tried to do it the legal method that weren’t allowed to. These were people with college degrees that started on the H-1B visa path and never were able to get their green card. They never even thought about doing it the illegal way.
There was a recent incident in my town where a legal alien bought a house. Then they started renting out the basement space to illegals (a basement rental in and of itself is illegal in my town). Then they took out the stairs to the basement to make more room to rent out (illegal again). The only exit was now the door leading to and from the basement (illegal).
Then the basement caught on fire by the only exit door and the fire fighters could not get into the basement. Three people died.
As long as people are willing to rent to illegals and illegal aliens are willing to rent, these tragedies will happen.
P.S. The family blamed the deaths on the fact that they claimed the fire department took “over twenty minutes to get here.” Rather stupid, as the fire department two towns over was called and arrived five minutes later.
A foreigner usually needs more documents than a US citizen. And that’s when you’re dealing with people who actually understands the papers you’re presenting; I got threatened with the cops several times by people who didn’t want to accept that my Visa was legal (an L-1 could be obtained in two ways, so the list had L-1a and L-1b, but the one on the passport didn’t have a letter).
Also, you say “should not further…”; while the laws have probably changed since, getting people to change The Way They Do Things is a very lengthy process.
You see the dilemma- pay lots of money, wait a really long time, jump through numerous hoops… and still have nothing to show for it. Yeah, that’s definitely an incentive to go through the process… :rolleyes:
But the difference with college students, though they are still often quite poor, is that they would at least have the opportunity to complain or move if their landlord started ignoring the codes. Illegals, particularly those who have no documents at all, would be hesitant to move or call the county inspector. There aren’t a lot of (decent) places that are so lax about credit and background checks (around here at least) so they’re stuck renting from unscrupulous landlords.
I’ve got the same thing happening next door. It’s packed with about a dozen illegal Mexicans. The building isn’t up to code (13 violations, I believe, according to the word on the street) hasn’t been fixed and is now scheduled for demolition. I don’t know what all the different violations are, other than what can be seen from the street (no trash pickup- there was a pile of trash about 12x14x8ft behind the house. There was a window that had been ripped out of the wall, that had a piece of plywood covering most, but not all, of the hole. There’s fire hazards, no adequate means of egress, etc).
So, for those unable to buy fake documents, there are still plenty of slumlords willing to exploit illegal immigrants’ need for housing.
The illegal aliens couldn’t rent better and wouldn’t call the city. If they get evicted where will they go? They are at the bottom of the rental market. In the meanwhile, the landlord is raking it in and the City is losing the property taxes and fees that are charged for a legal rooming house (Lord, do I know about those!).
I wonder if there’s any way to hear this from a landlord’s perspective. I can hardly think that someone who rents to “the bottom of the rental market” is really and truly “raking it in.” In fact the pittance that he probably clears may be barely enough to legally maintain the place. Now I’m not defending the landlord against his legal obligations or making excuses, but just proposing potential “why’s” to the problem.
The landlord is not maintaining the place legally. The rent money he is collecting is illegal gains. He is probably being paid cash that was illegally earned, he is probably not reporting it as legal income, and he is illegally renting out space.
