Paula Porten & Tom Duggan
Paula Porten
& Tom Duggan
>>Valley Patriot>> |
Snake
Oil Salesmen The bill to grant lower In-State Tuition rates to illegal alien students is still marking time on Beacon Hill. It has been on the House Calendar for six months, and there it remains because there are not enough votes to override a promised veto by Governor Romney. Well-funded advocates and lobbyists are spinning their stories of hardship, sympathy, and justice in an attempt to get the necessary votes, to no avail. They distort the argument by using deceptive terms such as “undocumented immigrants,” try to pass over their illegal acts by saying they are without “proper papers;” and justify their demands because illegal aliens “pay taxes” Of course they do. The truth is catching up with them as talk radio and grassroots immigration reform groups are getting heard and are challenging the Snake Oil Salesmen, advocates and lobbyists like MIRA, ACORN, the Irish Immigration Center, the Brazilian Immigration Center, HOPE, and the lobbyist Charles Glick. Their nearly two-decades-long spin machine is starting to break down. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) properly classifies these “undocumented immigrants” as “illegal aliens.” The sixty percent who cross our borders are criminals; the forty percent who overstay their visas can be deported and are barred from reentry for three to ten years, depending on how long they have overstayed their visas. This is not trivial stuff, nothing as simple as not having the “proper papers.” But they “pay taxes,” don’t they? Yes, they pay the taxes they cannot avoid, like sales taxes. Remember, illegal aliens cannot get valid Social Security numbers, so how do they pay income taxes? Many are paid “under the table,” so they are tax cheats; or, if you prefer, tax evaders, making them felons. Just ask former Speaker of the House Charles Flaherty and current State Senator Dianne Wilkerson about tax evasion. Those who are required to produce a Social Security number to get a job do so with a fraudulent Social Security number, another violation of the law. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue is shortchanged tens of millions of dollars a year by these tax scofflaws. This means all the loyal taxpaying residents of the Commonwealth are paying for these cheats. This does not prevent the advocates and their lobbyist-trained “students” from trying to spin away these realities. They have been trotting out two “students” who claim they have valid Social Security numbers and legal status. It turns out that they are claiming to be legal simply because they have “applied” for change of status. If they in fact have valid Social Security numbers, it would be because they are in a narrow range of illegal aliens, like those under TPS (Temporary Protected Status) countries, who are allowed to work while in the United States. Some pay taxes by using the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), a procedure employed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to capture taxes not being paid by those who do not have valid Social Security numbers. You have to ask yourself, though, why serial lawbreakers would now be concerned about paying taxes. The Snake Oil Salesmen have falsely claimed that the ITIN gives illegal aliens authorization to work; it does not. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on its website has an emphatic answer to that question: “Are ITINs valid for work purposes? No. ITINs are for federal income tax purposes only.” The most troubling aspect of this push to give de facto acceptance to illegal aliens is the destructive effect it is having on our society and culture. If the high illegal alien urban areas such as Framingham, Somerville, and Lawrence gain ascendancy, then the whole Commonwealth will be affected by these alien attitudes and they will continue to eat away at the proud heritage of this country, and its respect for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution that have made this such a successful democracy. We will be on a one way trip to third-world status. The illegal alien populations in these cities are serial lawbreakers – border violators, visa overstayers, drivers without licenses, tax cheats – who probably feel that they are being deprived of their rights when they are denied scholarships and tuition breaks. This is not what founded and sustained our nation and enabled us to achieve what we have. Fortunately, time may be running out on the purveyors of distortion and misinformation as the federal government is being forced to do something about our porous borders and the lax enforcement of immigration laws. The U.S. House of Representative recently passed the “Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,” a strict measure that emphasizes border control and internal enforcement. There will be a battle with the U.S. Senate and with President Bush, who wants a temporary guest worker/amnesty plan, but it will at least assure that the issue will be in the news and, the more the taxpayers, voters, and citizens of the Commonwealth are made aware of the issue, the more likely it is that the Snake Oil Salesmen will be unable to sell their tainted nostrums. Bob Casimiro
can be reached at arcasimiro@msn.com *Send your questions
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