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This sponsored column is by James Montana, Esq., Doran Shemin, Esq. and Laura Lorenzo, Esq., practicing attorneys atSteelyard LLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Arlington, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice,contact Jamesfor an appointment.

Tax Law and the Undocumented was one of the less-popular choices on our glorious Readerpalooza poll, but its tax time, and we want to make sure this information is out there, because someone really needs it. (Our motto here at Statutes of Liberty is Decreasing Needless Suffering: Its Taking Longer Than We Thought.)

So, its time for a Q&A between our imaginary interviewer, Cosell, and our non-imaginary founding partner.

Cosell: Lets cut to the chase. Do illegal immigrants undocumented people, what-have-you do they have to pay taxes?

Montana: Yes. Paying taxes on U.S. income is required under federal law whether you are here legally or illegally.

Cosell: But they dont have Social Security numbers, do they?

Montana: Some of them do. Immigration is complicated. (Until 1974, you didnt have to submit any evidence at all to get an SSN you just asked for one. See here.)

Cosell: OK, wise guy, but how do you pay your taxes without a Social Security number?

Montana: The IRS will issue you something called an Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN), which serves as a substitute for an SSN. An Individual Taxpayer ID Number allows the IRS to keep track of you from year to year.

Cosell: But come on. It would be stupid to tell the federal government your address and name if youre living illegally in this country. Why on earth would anyone do that?

Montana: Many of our clients genuinely want to pay taxes. They see it as part of being responsible residents in this country. Also again, immigration is complicated! there are lots of families with mixed status. For example, Dad has TPS, Mom is undocumented, one kid is undocumented and the two younger kids were born here. In that family, there are three legitimate Social Security numbers and two ITINs. Dads employer will withhold his income, and hell want to file a tax return.

Cosell: But wont the IRS report you to ICE?

Montana: There are plenty of people who fear that, but federal law generally forbids the disclosure of tax information for immigration purposes. This is a contested area of law, but our view is that people should pay their taxes. First of all, its the right thing to do. Second, paying your taxes is useful evidence of physical presence and compliance with U.S. law, which your immigration lawyer will love to see.

Cosell: So, lets say Im undocumented. Should I have my cousins friend prepare my taxes? I hear hes super good at it always gets the best refund!

Montana: God, we get this all the time. NO NO NO NO.

Cosell: Why not?

Montana: Because your cousins friend is an idiot. He will, without fail, (1) claim incorrect numbers of dependents, (2) write down that you are head of household when you arent, (3) put down his address rather than yours just to keep things simple and generally make a dogs breakfast of the whole thing.

Please go to a licensed tax preparer or a CPA. Free tax preparation is available right here in Arlington from Enterprise Development Group (EDG). If you live in D.C. or suburban Maryland, check out the Catholic Charities Financial Stability Network. If neither of those works for you, go to a physical H&R Block office. H&R Block takes more of your refund than a free preparer would, but theyre still better than the alternative.

Cosell: Whats your favorite unlicensed tax preparer story?

Montana: There are so many. My personal fave is Kenneth Mwase, whose unlicensed tax business not only fleeced clients out of their refunds but also (allegedly) drove them to ATMs to demand more money. After his conviction, he fled to South Africa using a bogus Zimbabwean passport. It took an international manhunt to find him. Why would you pay for that kind of service when you can get actual, sane tax advice for free from a kindly retired accountant?

The rest is here:
Statutes of Liberty: Tax Law and the Undocumented -- You Don't Get What You Pay For - ARLnow

Vice President Kamala Harris is apparently the new border czar sort of. As Politico explains: Harris exact role hasnt been fully laid out publicly. But she is ostensibly spearheading efforts to deal with what some experts describe as the root causes of migration usually described as poverty, high levels of violence, and corruption in Mexico El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. I wish her the best, but she will likely be no more successful than her predecessors.

It should be noted at the outset that migration actually exacerbates those root causes.

Corruption: My colleague Todd Bensman explained on March 29 how the recent migrant surge is enriching Mexican officials who are demanding bribes from and shaking down Central American migrants. Dont think for a minute that bribes and graft are not built into smugglers pricing structure elsewhere, at every step along the migrant journey.

High levels of violence: Violent drug cartels make money by demanding a tax or piso from smugglers who are moving migrants across what those cartels deem their territory. That money gets plowed back into their other criminal enterprises. And, of course, smugglers themselves are violent criminals, as a recent Wall Street Journal article makes vividly clear.

Then, there are the gangs, and in particular MS-13. Most Central American asylum claims are premised on some sort of harm by the gangs: extortion, recruitment, or threats to scare off witnesses and informants.

As the Obama-era Treasury Department made clear, however, MS-13 operates in the United States, too (with 8,000 members in 40 states and D.C.), and is involved in multiple crimes including murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and human trafficking including prostitution. Profits from those enterprises get funneled back to the gangs leadership in El Salvador, enabling them to engage in more violent crime in Central America.

MS-13 recruits new members in the United States to commit those offenses, in part, by targeting recent immigrants, including unaccompanied alien minors, as Timothy D. Sini, the police commissioner of Suffolk County, N.Y., explained to a Senate committee in May 2017. Thus, the circle of crime and illegal immigration both in Central America and the United States is regrettably completed.

Poverty: As Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in mid-March, mass immigration is not profitable for either country involved. Bukele explained:

If you send hardworking people and talented people and people who want to risk it just to go to work, you want to keep them here because those will be the drivers of your economy. You don't want them there so that they can send a remittance, which would be a small portion of what they would earn and produce; you want them to produce here.

Bukele would know: At least 20 percent of El Salvadors population lives abroad (most almost 1.3 million Salvadoran immigrants in the United States), and their remittances account for around 20 percent of the countrys GDP.

In any event, however, this is not the United States first foray into ending those root causes of illegal migration. Here is then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, in a statement from 2016:

Border security alone cannot overcome the powerful push factors of poverty and violence that exist in Central America. ... Ultimately, the solution is long-term investment in Central America to address the underlying push factors in the region. We continue to work closely with our federal partners and the governments in the region, and are pleased with the $750 million Congress approved in FY 2016 for support and aid to Central America. We urge Congress to provide additional resources in FY 2017.

Given the fact that poverty, violence, and corruption are still cited as factors in Central American migration, that funding either wasnt enough, or simply made little or no difference in addressing these factors.

President Biden has, nonetheless, proposed a:

$4 billion four-year inter-agency plan to address the underlying causes of migration in the region, including by increasing assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, conditioned on their ability to reduce the endemic corruption, violence, and poverty that causes people to flee their home countries.

That is an increase of $250 million per year over the funding plan Johnson discussed in 2016, but will it do any good? Respectfully, there is no reason to suggest that it will.

The average annual income in El Salvador is $4,000, in Guatemala it is $4,610, in Honduras it is $2,310, and in Mexico it is $9,480. By comparison, it is $65,850 in the United States.

Of course, those are averages, not actual income. The minimum yearly wage in El Salvador is between $2,433.84 and $3,650.04, depending on the sector of the economy.

In Guatemala, the yearly minimum wage is $2,734.00, again, with some differentiation among sectors.

The approximate official yearly minimum wage in Honduras is $7,915.00, suggesting that a large portion of the economy is working off the books, and/or that taxes are really high.

By contrast, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour, or about $15,080.00 per year. In California, however, it is $13.00 per hour ($27,040.00 per year); in Washington State it is $13.69 per hour ($28,475.20 per year); and in D.C. the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour (or $31,200 per year).

And the population of El Salvador is about 6.5 million; of Guatemala just over 18 million; and of Honduras, around 10 million, for a total of around 34.5 million. The $4 billion in aid that the president is proposing would total about $116 per person over four years, or about $29 per year. That is nowhere near enough to make up the difference in the wage gap between those countries and the United States.

And, while I have no doubt about the vice presidents negotiating skills, or her ability to combat crime (she is the former attorney general of California and San Francisco district attorney), I question whether she will be able to make any appreciable impact on the endemic crime and corruption in the Northern Triangle.

The United States does not have a great track record of addressing such structural issues abroad. We have been attempting to improve the lives of the Afghan people, for example, for the better part of two decades, and have little to show for the $500 million in civilian aid we provide there annually.

An evergreen hearing that we would regularly have when I was on the House Oversight Committee was with John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. In one instance, when he was asked whether he was familiar with $6 million that had been spent on a plan to import nine blond goats from Italy, Sopko responded:

Yes, unfortunately, I am. And it was a program by the Task Force for Business Stabilization. It was basically an attempt to rebuild or build a cashmere market, and as far as we know, it was a failure. They did import goats.

I will cut off the testimony there before it veers into animal husbandry, but you can read about that and other wasteful Afghanistan rebuilding efforts in a Washington Post article from August 2017 captioned Here are six costly failures from Americas longest war. No. 1: Cashmere goats.

Rather than traveling to address the so-called (and intractable, at least in the short run) root causes of illegal migration, the vice president would be better served by staying in Washington and cleaning up the pull factors, that is the loopholes in U.S. law that are drawing migrants to enter illegally. She can do that much more cheaply and likely exponentially more successfully from her office in the Capitol.

Originally posted here:
Kamala Harris Is the New Border Czar Sort Of - Immigration Blog

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith believes T&T is at risk for a resurgence in COVID-19 cases due to the continued issue of illegal immigration.

He said harsher penalties and increased restrictions must be enacted to serve as a real deterrent to those entering the country illegally.

Griffith said the current $1,000 fine or three months imprisonment if in default are a get out of jail free pass.

He warned that urgent steps must be taken to stem the spread of the virus and allow the country to return to some semblance of normalcy.

If these numbers continue to increase, because it is perceived by people on the mainland that it is easy to enter the country and pay a thousand dollars we will be in serious trouble.

It will be difficult to contain the virus unless further restrictions are put in place and a vast majority of our citizens will be affected. This will prolong the time that it will take to revert to some degree of normalcy in the future.

The Police Commissioner noted that 26 people were arrested on Los Iros Beach by officers of the South Western Division last Saturday, and charged with failing to report to an immigration officer for examination on entry in Trinidad and Tobago.

The three drivers a Trinidadian, Nigerian and Venezuelan, pled not guilty and were granted bail. Orders of Supervision - not detention orders by the Immigration Division will be issued to the 23 illegal immigrants upon completion of their 14-day quarantine.

He said a recent court ruling ensures that these individuals will be free to stay in the country once their fine is paid.

Griffith said: although the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has enforced the law by conducting operations based on intelligence gathering and due diligence, as a result of the actions of the judiciary, it seems that the perpetrators are being allowed "a get out of jail free pass".

Immigrants can come here illegally, hope that they dont get caught, and if they do, beat the system by walking with $1,000 cash, and they will be allowed to stay in the country. This is another glaring indication of the gap between law enforcement and the criminal justice system, he continued.

Griffith said the courts decision sends the message that there is virtually no deterrent and no consequences of entering the country illegally.

More:
CoP worried: Illegal immigration could cause surge in COVID-19 cases - Loop News Trinidad and Tobago

MISSION, Texas (KVEO) A delegation of 18 Republican Senators finished their tour of the border on Friday with a press conference in Anzalduas County Park to discuss the recent trend of undocumented immigrants.

Overnight, the delegation of Senators walked along the Rio Grande, seeing the areas they said illegal immigrants used to gain access to the country.

This afternoon, they took a tour of the Rio Grande itself aboard a DPS patrol boat. Back on the docks, the Senators spoke about the hardships Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is facing.

The smugglers, the drug runners, they understand our laws and they know how to expose them to their benefit. So ending catch and release, making sure people legitimate claims get to present them to an immigration judge, I think [those] should be a priority, said Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn.

He said the Biden administration was responsible for the increase in illegal immigrants.

Heres the bottom line- the border patrol and health and human services, and the non-government organizations that are struggling to deal with this flood of humanity, tell us they cannot get ahead of this flood of humanity without policy change in Washington DC, Cornyn continued.

Senator Ted Cruz spoke of the cramped conditions in the Donna facility, and of the kids in cages he saw there.

Little girls, of little boys, lying side by side, touching each other, covered with reflective emergency blankets, said Cruz. There was no six-foot space there was no three-foot space there wasnt a three-inch space between the children lined up one after the other after the other.

He continued and said the Biden administration needed to be doing a better job of caring for the kids in those facilities.

The Biden administration is taking kids who are testing positive for Covid-19 and locking them in cages side by side. This is inhumane, it is wrong, and it is the direct consequence of policy decisions by the Biden administration, he said.

During their speeches, several Senators called on President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to come to the border and experience the reality on the ground for themselves.

View post:
Senators tour Rio Grande, blame Biden administration for increase in undocumented immigrants - KGBT-TV

The recent immigration surge at the Texas border is manufactured by decades of America intervening to prop up right-wing, South American dictators. This faux crisis is the new threat used by Republicans to deflect attention from the forthcoming trials of those involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

In Texas, the immigration crisis serves as a counter-narrative to the winter 2021 debacle under Gov. Greg Abbotts watch and the looming battle to rein in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

U.S. foreign policies have drained Latin American countries of their natural resources such as coffee, sugar, bananas, oil and cotton products while destabilizing their economies and making them interdependent, author Roberto Saviano wrote in The Migrant Caravan: Made in USA, published in 2019. When South American farmers shifted to harvesting cocoa leaves for cocaine and marijuana for consumption in America, the U.S. drug war went into full bloom.

Another example of U.S. exploitation is the infamous Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s involving Ronald Reagans fall guy, Oliver North. Documents declassified from the National Security Archive cite North as informing Robert Owen, a liaison for the State Department, on Aug. 8, 1985, that a DC-6 which is being used for runs (to supply the Contras) out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into the U.S.

Our countrys history on immigration is a complex battle of ideology: One side is inextricably bound by bigotry; the other is tied to the spirit of generosity and renewal of America shaped by people who come here.

Immigrants take the low-paying, backbreaking jobs many Americans refuse to do. The Immigration Charade, written by Christopher Jencks in 2007, states that employers say that foreign-born workers tend to work harder, be more reliable, and complain less than the natives they can hire at the same wage. Unskilled immigrants have seldom finished secondary school, but they have overcome all kinds of obstacles both to get here and to stay here.

Of course, many of these immigrants would prefer to live in their own countries but hurricanes, climate-change crop failures and failed U.S. foreign policies have disrupted their economies. These are the political consequences of empire-building and massive immigration that Juan Gonzalez explains in Harvest of Empire.

About half of undocumented U.S. workers pay income tax. They help fund public schools and local government services by paying sales and property taxes like any resident. They contributed about $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, according to research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

But what about undocumented migrants who use fake Social Security cards? The Social Security system has become reliant on their contributions as baby boomers retire.

Stephen Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, estimated that in 2010 about 1.8 million immigrants worked with fake or stolen Social Security cards but expects that number to reach 3.4 million by 2040. According to his calculations, undocumented immigrants paid $13 billion into the retirement trust fund that year, and only got $1 billion in benefits. Thats a nice tidy sum for baby boomers.

Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party turbocharged the nastiest rhetoric about immigrants since Woodrow Wilson and calculatingly stoked xenophobic fears through Ann Coulters Adios America! turning its racist theories of immigrant invasion and infestation into existential threats aimed toward an implicitly evangelical conservative America.

Are the words In God We Trust only for show and exchange of capital?

Rafael Castillo is a writer and member of PEN America, the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

More:
Commentary: Migrant crisis at border was years in the making - San Antonio Express-News