No Drag On The Economy. About Eight Million Undocumenteds Pay Social Security, Medicare, And Income Taxes

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The ongoing debate on immigration in the public domain continues to generate much interest from both left and right quarters in the United States. At the core of the debate is how to handle the estimated 11 or 12 million undocumented immigrants presently living here. Depending on where you are sitting in the debate – Left or Right – the answer to that question will be in an either or formulation.

On the Left of the debate are liberals, libertarians and compassionate Americans who acknowledge that this mass of poor people have broken basically or of three US immigration laws and should be penalized for that by paying a hefty fine but that should not bar them from regularization of their status. For this group kicking them out of the country is both un-American and not a practical thing to do.

On the Right of the debate are conservatives and neo-conservatives who see the undocumented problem as a law and order issue – people broke the law so incarcerate them and kick me out of the United States after they have paid for their crime(s). There are no shades of grey here; no compromise positions with advocates for this kind of action demanding only that US laws be enforced.

And yet there is a Centrist position in this debate albeit weak and not so well articulated perhaps because of the cacophonous din that is being created by elements of the two extremes. The fact is that people become illegal immigrants to the United States in one of three ways: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period after legal entry, or by violating the terms of legal entry. The vast majority of them come to America seeking a better life.

Criminalizing the undocumented has become the cause celebre of the myopic Right Wing because it takes the cowardly and easy way out. When the Right Wing paints the features of the undocumented as criminals and makes the quantum leap that they are all terrorists-in-waiting then the waters of the immigration debate become so muddied that it creates the appearance of “we against them.” By stoking the fires of xenophobia, positing erroneous conclusions, and making statements bereft of facts the Right Wing seeks to inculcate in the minds of the gullible that America is harboring “the enemy within.”

But this dumbing down of the immigration debate by the ultra-Right Wing is matched by the confused and tortuous positions of those on the Left. While the right is clear and unambiguous about its intentions the Left hesitates, vacillates, obfuscates and stitches together a hodge-podge of “initiatives” that end up being muddled and incoherent. In this climate the Right gets the upper hand by boiling down its arguments to a lawful and unlawful brew while the Left is flopping all over the place.

The view from the Center is that there is a need to make a clear case for meaningful immigration reform based on existing facts used to justify any future action. If, and it’s a big if, politics, raw emotion, xenophobia and tortured reasoning can be set aside for a moment and the entire picture of the mess that is present day immigration in the United States can be looked at objectively a few startling facts will emerge.

For those on the Right who want to “pull-up-the-drawbridge” and deny the undocumented access to the most basic human services the revelation that millions of undocumented immigrants pay taxes into US coffers might come as a shock. That is because of the spin by the mass media led by CNN’s Lou Dobbs and others that the undocumented are moochers who simply want to live of the sweat and labor of American citizens.

The fact is that a stunning two-thirds of the undocumented population pay taxes at will and pay into Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. And they may not have legal documents but every time they buy goods and services and pay fees and taxes they contribute to the United States economy. While this fact is never mentioned by the nativist current in the debate they push the line that the undocumented are a colossal drain on the nation’s hospitals, schools and welfare programs consuming services that they don’t pay for.

Obfuscated from the reality of the true situation is the fact that since 1996 the Clinton Welfare Reform Law has disqualified the undocumented from nearly all means-tested and entitlement programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare and other human-services program. The only services that the undocumented now have access to are emergency medical care and K-12 education.

Even with this heavy burden on them the Republican Right wing has passed a number of other draconian laws that now make life a living Hell for the undocumented. And what they could not get passed in the Congress they have urged their counterparts at both the state and local levels to pass laws that criminalize, ostracize and stigmatize the undocumented – the vast majority of whom have committed only one legal transgression that of overstaying their time in the United States.

Already living in the shadows of society the undocumented are exploited by unscrupulous employers, landlords and others who prey on their helplessness to make profits. Not satisfied to criminalize the undocumented both House and Senate Republicans have authored all kinds of bills that seek to make it a criminal offense for decent humane Americans and family members to help the undocumented.

Even charitable acts by priests, nurses and social workers and any soup kitchen that offers free meals to the undocumented could face up to five years in prison and seizure of assets. The Senate bill that recently collapsed would have tempered these draconian measures against private aid. But no one — Democrat or Republican — seems to be opposed to the idea of withholding public services.  To avoid what one Republican lawmaker called “theft of these benefits  by illegal aliens” Congress has passed a law that requires Medicaid recipients to offer proof of US citizenship – something that further complicates the delivery of health care for all who need it and sets doctors on a collusion course with politics.

But it is time that we put to rest the perception that immigrants are coming to the United States to become wards of the state, to steal American jobs and to compete with citizens for entitlement programs and services.  According to a study by the Urban Institute, the 1996 welfare reform effort dramatically reduced the use of welfare by undocumented immigrant households. And another vital thing happened in 1996: the Internal Revenue Service began issuing identification numbers to enable illegal immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers to file taxes.

For those who seek to criminalize the undocumented here are a few other facts. When the feds started to issue these tax ID numbers the undocumented were elated and today approximately 8 million of the reported 12 million of them now regularly file taxes with the IRS. This undocumented population annually contributes about $10 billion to the government’s coffers. But more than that this demonstrates the desire of the undocumented to come out of the shadows and play by the rules.

And while the USCIS continues to make workplace raids the undocumented who are gainfully employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from their paychecks. But most of the “work numbers” are false and so the undocumented will never be able to collect these benefits. In 2006 that money paid by the undocumented to the Social Security Administration accounted for 10 percent of its surplus of $50 billion dollars.

The undocumented pay state sales taxes that helps in the maintenance of our roads and other public facilities. Property taxes paid through their high rent costs contribute towards the public schooling of their children. In fact, one research organization, the National Research Council, found that when the taxes paid by the undocumented are analyzed and tabulated the research found that individually they contribute an average of $80,000 more to the federal government than they consume.

To those who say that the undocumented is a drain on US resources, who take jobs from American workers, and who mooch off of health services and entitlement programs the facts do not jive with the spin. It is one thing to beat up on a defenseless population and another to be hypocritical and dishonest when it comes to presenting the American people with the facts about immigration.

Authors Website: http://www.CSG2017.com

Authors Bio:

MICHAEL DERK ROBERTS
Small Business Consultant, Editor, and Social Media & Communications Expert, New York

Over the past 20 years I've been a top SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTANT and POLITICAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST in Brooklyn, New York, running successful campaigns at the City, State and Federal levels. I'm a published author and award-winning journalist. I've been honored and recognized for my deep, hard-hitting analytical work on socio-economic and political issues confronting the United States in general and New York City in particular. I'm he Senior Consultant, COMMONSENSE STRATEGIES (www.commonsensestrategies.biz ), a Marketing, Social Media & Communications company based in Brooklyn. I also host two weekly podcasts at www.blogtalkradio.com/shangoking .The first, aired on Saturday mornings is called BTS -- Business, Technology and Social Media and the second, The Roberts Report, is aired on Sundays. You can also follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mdvroberts. (347) 279-6668.