Marrying an Alien: A Drama in 317 Acts

[pne]

Well, maybe not quite that many, but what this guy had to go through to have his Polish sweetheart join him legally in the US sounds like quite an Odyssey.

Comments

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

1. Immigrants, even illegal immigrants, can and do pay taxes. In fact, having paid your taxes is one of the best ways to convince the US government that they should let you become legal.

2. The article had absolutely nothing to do with illegal immigration.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

1. Illegal immigrants by definition cannot qualify for working papers and therefore must be employed under the table. Additionally, not having working papers means that you can't have a social security number, which effectively prevents you from being able to file income taxes on U.S. income. Similarly, the lack of legal income prevents you from qualifying for loans for property purchases, though I suppose it's possible that someone would be able to purchase property in the United States without any bank assistance, it does seem rather unlikely. Unless there's some kind of taxes I haven't thought of, the only tax I could see an illegal immigrant likely to pay is sales tax, which is, individually, a very small tax.

I'm not trying to say that they're deliberately freeloading or anything -- I'm pointing out that the avenues by which American citizens pay taxes (and in turn demand government services) are effectively closed to them, which makes them effectively non-taxpayers.

2. Right. I was explaining why the U.S. has so damn many problems with immigration at the moment anyway. :) There's lots of anti-immigrant sentiment, and as you can see from the tone of my earlier comment, I don't condone it, but I do understand how those sentiments have percolated in the U.S. Southwest. If there was less for INS to oversee and less bullshit (pardon my language) to deal with to get working papers in the first place, INS would be in turn that much more efficient and that much cheaper for taxpayers to maintain.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

You don't need a Social Security Number to pay taxes. Anyone who wants one can file for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and use it to pay taxes instead of the SSN. The IRS would rather have the money than spend its time keeping track of whose earnings are legal or not. Trust me. I work with immigrants, legal and illegal all the time, and illegal immigrants most certainly can and do use an ITIN to pay federal income taxes. Not all of them, certainly; as I said, those hoping to become legal often pay taxes because having been a law-abiding taxpayer (other than one's illegal status) is the best way to convince the government to not deport you when there's an amnesty granted.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

Getting the amnesty, from the work I've done (admittedly sort of sideways -- I've worked with battered women seeking amnesty to stay in the U.S. while fleeing their citizen husband, so I've not faced the issues head on) can be a pain in the neck, and I know the people I've spoken to in that situation didn't want to do things to "attract attention". (How getting a taxpayer number is significantly different from sending your kids to the local public school is a good question, though.)

There's also the fact of getting W-2s and 1099s from employers who hired you under the table, documenting earnings from someplace sketchy enough to pay you without certifying your INS status, etc. . . . the entire thing swirls into a maelstrom of paper that can confuse college-educated U.S. professionals, let alone someone for whom English is not a first language and is uncertain on the jargon.

I sympathize deeply with the illegals and I want the barriers to be torn down for them -- but I also have heard many times *how* the resentment built up among Californians and Texans and New Mexico and Arizona residents, and that needs to be addressed too.

Of course, my Libertarian dream of "green cards for everyone who asks" is unlikely to happen anytime soon. :(