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Joined: May 22, 2006 Posts: 28613 Location: Mexifornia
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:49 am Post subject: Illegal workers manage to skirt Ariz. employer-sanctions law
Illegal workers manage to skirt Ariz. employer-sanctions law
Borrowed identities, cash pay fuel an underground economy
by Daniel González - Nov. 30, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Undocumented workers and employers in Arizona are finding ways to circumvent the state's employer-sanctions law by turning to the underground, or cash, economy.
Blocked by the law from getting payroll jobs, many illegal immigrants instead are performing services or selling items on the side for cash.
Others have tried a different strategy: borrowing the identities of citizens or legal residents to land jobs with employers.
The maneuvers are allowing many undocumented families to remain in the United States despite heightened enforcement of immigration laws and a battered economy that has erased many jobs.
There are no studies that estimate how many illegal immigrants have turned to cash-only work to survive in Arizona. But economists say one of the results is that much of the money immigrants earn is going unreported and untaxed. That deprives the state of income-tax revenue even as tax revenue in Arizona is plummeting because of the faltering economy.
Gabino, a Phoenix resident who asked that his last name not be used for fear of being deported, is among the undocumented immigrants who have shifted from the traditional economy to the underground one. A year ago, the 37-year-old man from Guanajuato, Mexico, was assembling electronic parts at a plant in Phoenix, a job he got using fake papers. He not only drew a paycheck but also paid state and federal income taxes.
But in 2007, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation that toughens penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Gabino was fired late that year.
Instead of leaving Arizona, as was intended by proponents of the sanctions law for immigrants such as Gabino, he began working mostly for cash. He sells used items at swap meets and puppies that he breeds in his north Phoenix trailer home. More recently, Gabino assumed the identity of a U.S. citizen who lent him his valid Social Security number to get jobs.
Some economists say that stories like Gabino's bear out their predictions that the employer-sanctions law is having negative consequences for Arizona's economy.
"It's an effect of the sanctions (law) that is exacerbated by the bad economy," said Elliott Pollack, an Arizona economist who regularly advises the state Legislature. "What you've done, because of that law, is taken tax-paying people" and shifted them off the tax rolls.
Supporters of the sanctions law argue that if the law is forcing some illegal immigrants to move to the underground economy, that is a sign the law is working.
"It's unfortunate that they continue to disrespect our laws by working off the books in addition to living here illegally," said state Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. "But this is one step closer to driving them out of the state. . . . It's making it more uncomfortable for them" to get jobs.
E-Verify at work
Gabino said he has lived in Arizona for 10 years. Until the sanctions law went into effect, he had no trouble getting legitimate jobs on the books using a fake Social Security card with an invented number. Employers never checked to see whether the number he gave them was actually valid.
But that all changed in January when the sanctions law began requiring Arizona employers to verify the work eligibility of new hires using the federal online database E-Verify. The system usually confirms within minutes whether someone is authorized to work. As of the end of September, more than 22,000 employers in Arizona were using the system, according to the federal government.
At the electronics plant, Gabino said he was earning $13 an hour. With overtime, his paycheck came out to about $650 a week. From that, Gabino said his employer withheld about $123 in state and federal income taxes.
Gabino said that in December managers at the plant started getting nervous as the employer-sanctions law was about to take effect.
The managers told him and other immigrants that they were going to review their work documents and if their Social Security numbers didn't check out, the workers would be let go. About a week later, Gabino said, he lost his job.
"It forced us to do a lot more stuff underhanded to survive," Gabino said.
A cash economy
The state's underground economy existed long before the sanctions law was approved, but its size is unknown.
Although illegal immigrants constitute a significant portion of the black-market workforce, it is difficult to gauge how many of them have shifted from company payrolls to the cash economy, economists say.
Anecdotal evidence based on interviews with undocumented workers and immigrant advocates suggests the number is growing, mainly because of the sanctions law and the poor economy.
"I think it's widespread. I think it's more widespread than we know about it," said Hector Yturralde, president of We Are America, a coalition of Arizona pro-immigrant groups. "They (immigrants) knock on doors and ask for gardening work or they are doing handyman work. A lot of these are workers who were employed in construction and they lost their jobs, so this is what they are doing."
The state's cash economy is virtually unregulated. The state's Department of Revenue employs four criminal investigators whose main targets are employers who try to reduce their taxes by fraudulently filling out tax forms. The investigators don't focus on employers who pay employees in cash under the table, said Sandy Schwartz, who oversees the criminal investigations section.
"We haven't had any criminal investigations (of employers paying cash), but we haven't been out there looking for that, either," she said.
Several economists agree that a shift to the underground economy is probably taking place and is worsening Arizona's economic problems by further deflating income-tax revenues. The effect is adding to the state's $1.2 billion budget shortfall.
The impact could be substantial considering the size of the state's undocumented workforce. About 200,000 of the state's 2.6 million workers are undocumented, according to estimates by Judith Gans, a researcher at the University of Arizona.
"It is safe to say it is likely a contributor, but I can't tell you if it is a major contributor or a minor contributor," said Marshall Vest, a UA economist.
Arizona took in about $371 million less in individual income-tax collections from January to September of this year compared with the same period last year, a drop of 13 percent, according to the state's Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
However, sales-tax collections for some necessities have not fallen as precipitously, dropping 2.5 percent for food and 6.8 percent for clothing. That suggests more workers aren't paying income taxes but are still earning money to spend, a sign that Arizona's underground economy is growing, said Barbara Robles, an economist at Arizona State University's Center for Community Development and Civil Rights. Robles said an underground economy isn't all bad because it means workers are still buying goods and paying sales taxes, which is better than removing them from the economy completely.
Some economists believe sanctions-law supporters fail to recognize that illegal immigrants fill labor shortages in the economy and many of them work on the books and pay income taxes, said Vest, who supports temporary work visas.
Although Kavanagh supports a guest-worker program to help meet labor demands in some areas, he said allowing illegal immigrants to legalize their status would be a mistake because they tend to earn low wages and would pay less in taxes than the benefits they use, including emergency health care and education. Legalizing them would provide them access to even more benefits, he said.
Finding a way to stay
In some ways, the underground economy found Gabino.
After he was fired from the electronics plant, he tried getting other jobs using the same fake documents he used in the past. But the documents no longer worked. At job after job, employers ran his Social Security number through E-Verify and sent him on his way.
To earn money, Gabino started buying children's toys and clothing at yard sales and reselling them on Sundays at swap meets. A baby swing in his living room was an example: He bought it for $20 at a garage sale and re-sold it for $40 at a swap meet.
Gabino also sells small Pomeranian and Chihuahua dogs. He bent down in his living room and pulled a Chihuahua puppy out of a cage. "This little guy is worth $380," he said.
Gabino said in a good month, he makes about $800 profit at the swap meet and figures he'll make about $3,000 this year from selling the puppies.
That's not enough to support his family. Gabino and his wife, who does not hold a job, have four children, two of whom were born in the U.S. The oldest is 13, and the youngest 3 months.
But Gabino has still managed to find companies willing to hire him despite the sanctions law.
A few weeks after losing his job at the electronic plant, Gabino said he applied for a job at a factory that needed someone to paint iron gates. The boss offered Gabino the job, even though an E-Verify check showed he wasn't authorized to work, Gabino said.
"Since I didn't have a 'Social' to be able to work, the boss told me he would pay me with a check that belonged to another worker who didn't work there anymore. He said, 'You are now Pedro. You will get Pedro's check.' And he paid me as if I was Pedro," Gabino said.
There was only one catch. The boss was only willing to pay Gabino $7 an hour, 10 cents above the state's minimum wage. Gabino said he was desperate so he took the job. Cashing "Pedro's" check wasn't a problem at a check-cashing place.
"All you have to do is let them take your picture and bring a friend who vouches that you are the same person on the check," Gabino said.
After that job, Gabino quickly found a job at a furniture company willing to pay him $10 an hour in cash under the table.
Laid off there, he came up with a new scheme: He asked a U.S. citizen friend who isn't working if he could use his driver's license and Social Security number to get jobs.
"We are about the same age, and we look alike," Gabino said.
Gabino said he couldn't reveal why his friend didn't need his own documents to work.
Elias Bermudez, founder of the Phoenix-based advocacy group Immigrants Without Borders, said borrowing other people papers has become a common practice among illegal immigrants.
"Right now it's the mode of the day," Bermudez said. "Anyone who doesn't have documents is working for cash or is asking a family member or friend to lend them their paperwork so they can pass E-Verify."
Gabino said he considered himself fortunate. "Other people are charging (illegal immigrants) to use their papers," he said.
With the friend's papers, Gabino said he had no problem passing the E-Verify check for a construction job. Since July, he has been working as a laborer on a block-wall crew building a new strip mall. Gabino said he started off earning $11 an hour, but after two weeks the company cut his pay to $9.50 an hour because of the slow economy.
Still, as long as he can keep making money, Gabino said, he has no intention of leaving Arizona.
Oh please.....enough of the pro-illegal crap already.
Everything they talk about in this piece was going on LONG before the employer sanctions law went into effect and the law has NOT made it more prevelant.
The same people who were doing this same underhanded and illegal stuff before, are still doing it now and just from what I personally know, they are actually doing it LESS.
That's right, there is LESS of it because illegals.....who knew they would never be prosecuted for these crimes.....are now scared to death of being caught and prosecuted.
Right here in this development, we had a tenant who was so afraid that what they had been pulling would catch up with them, that she bought a shredder and destroyed every single ID, document, letter, bill, etc. they had in the house which had fake or stolen identity information on it. But that was nothing, before they packed up and took off back to Mexico, other tenants, and friends and family members of this woman, were bringing boatloads of stuff over to be shredded as well.
And then there were the three tenants we USED to have here who thought they could skirt the law by "borrowing" documents and all three of those guys are now sitting in jail serving their sentences after being arrested in a workplace enforcement operation and looking forward to being deported once they get out. Their wives, kids, and other family members packed up and went running back to Mexico within days after the arrests because they all figured they'd be next.
So yes, while there may be SOME who are still doing the same criminal crap they've always done, or SOME who believe they are just too slick to get caught, that just simply isn't the case with the MAJORITY.
But nice try on the part of the pro-illegals in trying to make us believe that the law is no threat. _________________ If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. T. Paine
Joined: Aug 18, 2008 Posts: 1207 Location: NC and Canada. Got a foot in both worlds
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:08 am Post subject:
Others have tried a different strategy: borrowing the identities of citizens or legal residents to land jobs with employers. BORROWING????? PLEASE... can we get any more biased in this reporting?
many illegal immigrants instead are performing services or selling items on the side for cash.
Employers are the problem. Anyone seen hiring illegals should be turned in!
Quote:
Others have tried a different strategy: borrowing the identities of citizens or legal residents to land jobs with employers.
Oh, that's one smart American letting an illegal "borrow" their SS#?
Quote:
He sells used items at swap meets and puppies that he breeds in his north Phoenix trailer home.
Now this one really pisses me off! Those puppies and especially the mom dog, are no doubt living a horrible life.
Quote:
"Since I didn't have a 'Social' to be able to work, the boss told me he would pay me with a check that belonged to another worker who didn't work there anymore. He said, 'You are now Pedro. You will get Pedro's check.' And he paid me as if I was Pedro,"
Sounds like Janet N. can start cleaning up her own state before she moves on to the country. _________________ This country needs a leader and not someone that thinks he's an American Idol!
Amazing, its BORROWING an ID when an illegal does it but when an American uses someones elses ID it is identy thieft (FELONY)
It is know wonder our country is going to crap so fast....hate to say this folks but I do believe we are already a 3rd world nation....
when a government has lost all control your doomed. And ours most assurdly has lost control, they have turned control over to every ethnocentric radical racist group out there, and let then they spin this crap to unbelieveable new heights. _________________ AUT*AGERE*AUT*MORI (EITHER ACTION OR DEATH)
Last edited by SOSADFORUS on Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:26 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: May 22, 2006 Posts: 28613 Location: Mexifornia
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:07 am Post subject:
More Arizona Republic Nonsense
November 30, 2008
Daniel Gonzales, reporter for the Arizona Republic, makes the argument that enforcing immigration laws hurts the economy (see 'Illegal workers manage to skirt Ariz. employer-sanctions law').
Gonzales says: "There are no studies that estimate how many illegal immigrants have turned to cash-only work to survive in Arizona. But economists say one of the results is that much of the money immigrants earn is going unreported and untaxed."
Gonzales admits there are no studies to support the argument that illegal aliens move from regular jobs to work off the books and this hurts the economy, and then refers to unnamed "economists" who say, "much of the money immigrants earn is going unreported and untaxed," as if someone had actually done a study. This is a cheap journalistic trick to prove a point with no proof. If economists are saying things and it is in print, link to it; If they are telling you these things, quote them. You can't do either because you are making these economists up in your head.
Gonzales says illegal aliens are "borrowing" the identities of citizens or legal residents to land jobs with employers." Borrowing? Does a bank robber borrow the money from a bank?
"Several economists agree that a shift to the underground economy is probably taking place and is worsening Arizona's economic problems by further deflating income-tax revenues. The effect is adding to the state's $1.2 billion budget shortfall."
Did these same economists say that American citizens benefit when illegal aliens are removed from the labor force?
Gonzales grabs a premise and then blows it all out of proportion with no facts to back him up. This is another example of the bias of the Arizona Republic in favor of lawlessness and open borders.
Joined: May 22, 2006 Posts: 28613 Location: Mexifornia
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:41 am Post subject:
Illegal Aliens Skirt Employee Verification Law
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 15:49 — Judicial Watch Blog
Illegal immigrants fired because of a landmark Arizona law that severely punishes businesses caught hiring them have remained in the workforce by using other people’s identities to get jobs.
Fed up with the devastating effect of illegal immigration, legislators in the border state have enacted the nation’s toughest laws to curb the crisis. Among them is a measure, passed last year, which makes it illegal for businesses to hire undocumented workers. Those that do face stiff fines and license revocation.
Fearful of the penalties, businesses throughout the state cleared their payrolls of illegal aliens, who in turn, have managed to circumvent the sanction law by using fake identities and working for cash. The fraud has allowed dozens of undocumented workers and their families to remain in the country illegally, according to a news report published this week.
Examples include a factory worker who borrowed a friend’s Social Security number after a decade of working with a fake one, a construction worker who uses his legal resident brother’s documents at a Phoenix company and a car wash employee paid in cash after getting busted with fake documents as a fast-food restaurant manager.
There are an estimated 200,000 undocumented workers in Arizona who have been affected by the employee verification law, which took effect this year. Many of them worked for years using documents their employers knew were fake and those firms legally challenged the measure, claiming it unconstitutionally infringes on federal immigration powers and discriminates against all Hispanics.
But earlier this year a federal judge in Phoenix upheld the measure, ruling that it does not conflict with federal immigration law which specifically lets states regulate business licensing. The ruling clarified that federal statutes do not preempt states from suspending or revoking the licenses of firms that break the law.
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If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. T. Paine
