Is the first lady trying to overthrow the president? Award-winning writer Kathleen Antrim's fictional response to this shocking premise is at the heart of her chillingly convincing political thriller, CAPITAL OFFENSE.
Illegal Immigration's Dirty Secret
2005-11-07
It's a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. Unfortunately, the United States government seems to have perfected the art of the tangled mess.
In 1996, during the Clinton administration, the knots in illegal immigration were pulled much tighter when the IRS created the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.
Once considered a problem only for California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, this issue now affects the entire nation. Since May, I've been living both in California and Washington, D.C. Spending time in such states as Virginia, I've come to learn that illegal immigration is one of the leading issues not just for California, but for many other states as well.
On Saturday, I covered both a rally against illegal immigration at the Capitol building in Sacramento and the counter-protest that marched along a police barrier at a nearby sidewalk. The various groups utilized their First Amendment rights in stark contrast to each other.
The Minutemen border-patrol group and KFBK radio talk show host Mark Williams began and ended their rally against illegal immigration with a prayer.
Jim Gilchrist, a founder of the Minuteman project and now a candidate for Congress, various Sept. 11 family members, and many others outlined the security dangers of open borders and the financial hardships imposed on state governments by millions of illegals getting free services such as medical care and education.
Meanwhile, the folks at the pro-illegal immigration counter-march screamed the "F-bomb," yelled out terms such as "racist," "fascist" and "Nazi," and brandished Mexican flags. Oddly, many of these same people seemed to have injured their middle fingers: They held them in the air, seemingly unable to bend them.
Anxious to find out why these counter-marchers were so irate, I interviewed some of them. Ararcila Lara, speaking on behalf of The Coalition to Deport the INS [the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service], claimed the Minutemen were racist. I repeatedly asked her to explain what the Minutemen do that she considered racist, but she was unable to come up with any examples.
Lara also said, "No human being is illegal, no matter where they are."
And then she explained that no one calls immigrants illegal when they are paying taxes.
Illegals paying taxes? How can that be?
The answer leads us to the dirty little secret of the IRS — the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
According to the IRS, ITINs are issued to individuals who are unable to qualify for a Social Security Number, regardless of their immigration status. According to Business Week, last year the IRS issued 900,000 ITINs, and since 1996 it has issued more than 8 million of them.
Translation: Undocumented illegal aliens obtain an ITIN, which allows them into the system. Taxes can be taken out of their paychecks, and they can get a bank account, buy a home and live in the United States just like a citizen or legal resident. But paying taxes does not qualify to you become a legal U.S. citizen, so those paying taxes under the ITIN system are still illegal.
Is it any wonder that illegals are confused and angry? They aren't citizens, but the IRS is happy to take their money in the meantime. And shouldn't American citizens be angry that the IRS essentially is subverting the INS? This policy is counterproductive and hypocritical, and because it allows illegal immigrants to work without any background checks, it's dangerous to national security.
How this problem will be untangled remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Untying these knots is going to be a very difficult and controversial task.
Kathleen Antrim is a columnist for The Examiner and Special Commentator for NewsMax.com. For more information go to KathleenAntrim.com.
