Thread: Great Letter to Tom Tancredo

Another great American that is trying to help stop the invasion of Illegal Immigrants.

Illegals: Cash Crop for IRS, Mystery to ICE

The Honorable Tom Tancredo
United States House of Representatives
1130 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0606

Dear Congressman Tancredo,

I am writing in hope that you make known widely a fact about immigration that is virtually unknown to the general public: About almost all foreigners who are living and working illegally in this country, our government knows their name, address, workplace, and income, as well as the names of their dependents!

How? Employers withhold income tax and FICA contributions from these workers’ wages and send the amounts withheld to the IRS (and to the Franchise Tax Board, in California; the IRS and most, if not all, state tax agencies share virtually all information about taxpayers.) In turn, almost all of these workers dutifully file tax returns annually. As a result, our government, between what employers report about their workers and what workers report about themselves, has all the information it needs to arrest and deport the workers and to prosecute their employers.

How do I know all this? I was a tax technician with the Franchise Tax Board from 1995 to 1999. I happen to be fluent in Spanish, so I was assigned to take calls from and assist non-English-speaking "taxpayers" who, usually after receiving a wage garnishment for payment of unpaid taxes, were seeking an installment agreement or modification of the wage garnishment. Many had not even filed tax returns. All were obviously foreigners, with scant knowledge of U.S. tax law.

But how, you may ask, did I know such workers were living and working illegally in this country? For one thing, I would ask them, and they would generally admit the truth. But more powerfully, the routine was to first ask a caller for his social security number. I would type the number into my computer and up would come many, many names, sometimes hundreds, almost all of them Spanish, the natural product of issuing the same, usually legitimate, social security number to a horde of people via forged identity documents. The Franchise Tax Board would, upon receipt of tax withheld by the employer, automatically issue a dummy tax identification number to the worker who was using someone else’s social security number. As a tax technician, it was often difficult, but always possible, to match a tax record to the caller.

I believe that Americans would be outraged to know that our government already has in its hands all the information it needs to enforce our immigration laws. No doubt the IRS and its sister state tax agencies would claim that using tax information to enforce immigration laws (by passing taxpayer identification information to the Department of Homeland Security, for example) is illegal. If that is so, then the law must be changed, something that falls in your department.

Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service, with its thousands of employees, continues to sit on the very information that would facilitate the enforcement of our immigration laws, while the rest of our government says it doesn’t know who the workers are, where they are, where they work, how much they earn, etc. Quite false. Our government knows all that, but the various departments fail, for some reason, to share information. No one shares information, least of all the IRS and Social Security Administration, which piously claim that immigration enforcement isn’t their job, while the dollars continue to flow in under phony social security numbers. Everyone makes money, while immigration law is ignored. Tax law counts. Immigration law doesn’t.

I would be happy to tell my story to anyone you might recommend; if this story broke on a television program such as “Lou Dobbs Tonight” or "60 Minutes," the resulting public outrage would make your job of trying to keep our country safe much easier.

Some might respond that employers would simply resort to omitting to report and pay withholding tax to the IRS. I would respond that employers may feel safe ignoring immigration laws, but few have the nerve to take on the IRS by concealing information about illegally employed workers. Tax law has real teeth, even if immigration law doesn’t.

By the way, I am far from a crackpot. I have made my career in public service, with 11 years in Federal civil service with the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Air Force, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Transportation. For the past 10 years, I have worked for the State of California, first with the Franchise Tax Board, then with the Department of Transportation, my current employer. I have served in the Coast Guard Reserve for the past 17 years. I was mobilized for the past two and a half years as a chief warrant officer (finance and supply specialty) in expeditionary warfare units in the global war on terror, and discharged honorably from active duty in April 2005. I served, among other places, in the harbor defense unit at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I am proud of my service to this country and I wish to help keep her safe in peace as I did at war. I hold undergraduate degrees in classical languages and accounting. I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. I am a graduate (with an emphasis in taxation, of all things) of University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, where Justice Anthony Kennedy was a constitutional law professor. All in all, I know what I’m talking about.

I hope what I have divulged in this letter is useful to you. I would be happy to tell this story to others, if you believe that would be useful. If so, please let me know. My e-mail address (REDACTED)

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to you for your efforts to help our country control her borders. I follow your work with great interest. In my eyes, you’re a hero.

Warmest regards

Chief Warrant Officer Daniel (REDACTED)
U.S. Coast Guard Reserve

http://wehategringos.com/whg/?p=118[/b]

I hope Tancredo takes him up on this. He's another American hero, waiting in the wings. Can we get this story to Lou Dobbs?

I sent Daniel Lou Dobbs email.

Good job!

Wow! This is valuable issue intelligence. We need more government and business workers to come forward and let us know the details of the shams, scams.

As someone who has done investigations, I know I've been able to find multiple names attached to the same SS# (can you say fraud?). This should result in an automatic investigation by the SSA but it doesn't.

A simple cross check of a SS# could stop an enormous amount of fraud, and therfore millions of criminal and civil court cases from ever occuring.

Thanks!

Steve

bttt

Nice write up Chief!!!

wow that was a great letter, I hope tancredo will be able to use his knowledge and experience to his advantage. Thanks for posting!!!

Hi Scotty Dog,
Also guilty of income tax evasion, are those employers who pay illegals out of petty cash - they are helping the illegals to commit income tax evasion, and they are writing it off as misc expenses as they cook the books.

You might put in a call to the Sean Hannity and Larry Elder radio show, both of them would be interested in this kind of information, good luck!

Dear friends,

I am the very Daniel in Sacramento, California, who authored the above letter. I sent it to Rep. Tancredo on December 21, 2005. Thank you for posting my letter and for your messages of support. I have taken your advice and forwarded copies to Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Larry Elder, as well as to several sympathetic members of Congress.

Haven't heard from Tom nor from any forwarding addressees yet, but I am gratified that the story has gone national, as you see in the following two articles published widely within the past two weeks. I am particularly pleased that Congress is taking action. A coincidence? E-mail me and let me know what you think.

Measure would require agencies to divulge details of illegal workers
Knight Ridder Washington Bureau
By Tim Funk and Liz Chandler
April 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to knock down barriers that currently bar the IRS and Social Security Administration from sharing information that could help law enforcement identify illegal immigrants and the firms that employ them.

The two agencies routinely collect evidence of potential workplace crimes, including the names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of the bosses who knowingly hire them.

The agencies don't analyze their data to sift out likely immigration fraud, and citing privacy rules, they won't share their records so that law enforcement agencies can do that, either.

In the immigration legislation now in the Senate, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has included a measure that allows the sharing of information with prosecutors on the most egregious examples of employers who send the two agencies inaccurate Social Security numbers for their workers.

Grassley described the protection of taxpayer information 'a cornerstone of our voluntary tax system,' but he said that the IRS could share selected information that wouldn't violate the privacy protections Americans expect.

On Wednesday, Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., announced plans to introduce bills requiring Social Security to notify immigration officials - and any American citizens affected - whenever more than one person uses the same Social Security number.

'Millions of Americans had their (Social Security) cards used by illegal aliens,' said Myrick. 'But the bureaucrats at the Social Security Administration don't tell these Americans. Their ID gets stolen and they are left in the dark.'

Federal officials say that as many as 9 million employment records contained bogus or duplicate Social Security numbers.

IRS officials worry that disclosing those records might cause companies and employees to stop reporting income and paying taxes - and go underground where exploitation is more certain.

But the Department of Homeland Security, which includes immigration enforcement, said that the tax information would make it easier to flag companies that report hiring great numbers of workers whose names and numbers don't match Social Security records.

DHS also wants to know whether the companies are engaged in businesses that pose a broader security threat, such as airports, seaports, and nuclear or chemical plants.

This week, the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau and The Charlotte Observer reported that possibly millions of illegal immigrants have hijacked Americans' numbers - and that federal agencies had alerted none of the victims.

IRS and Social Security officials said Wednesday that their hands are tied by federal tax codes that promise protection of taxpayer information.

'We could not arbitrarily do this on our own,' said Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter. 'This is an issue that Congress will have to decide.'

If the law is changed, Lassiter added, his agency will need more federal dollars to cover the costs of analyzing data to pinpoint unauthorized workers and then sending letters to millions of people whose Social Security numbers are being used by others.

At her Wednesday news conference, Myrick predicted that the costs would be minimal. She pointed out that the Social Security Administration already sends letters to employers who send in worker names and numbers that don't match.

Myrick also plans to introduce a bill that would end federal funding of highway and other projects if contractors knowingly employed illegal immigrants. The contractors also wouldn't be eligible for other federal contracts for two years.


The Charlotte Observer reported this week that portions of the I-77 highway in North Carolina were built by illegal immigrant laborers who were paid with state funds.

Myrick said she hopes to get a vote on her legislation this year. But it could stir opposition from privacy advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

An ACLU official said Wednesday that his group sees little problem with requiring Social Security officials to alert citizens whose numbers are being used by others.

'It's OK to ... give a heads-up that people might be the victims of identify theft,' said Mark Sparapani, the ACLU's counsel for privacy rights.

But he said Myrick's push to force the sharing of tax information would gut privacy laws in place for 30 years.

'There are well-defined IRS rules that say we're not going to share the private information of taxpayers,' Sparapani said.

Sparapani also questioned whether DHS has the staff to use such information effectively and said work-site enforcement has been a low priority.

But Myrick said she's more concerned about protecting those whose numbers have been stolen.

Said Myrick: 'It's an invasion of my privacy if someone is taking my Social Security number and using it.'

Myrick also proposed barring North Carolina and five other states - West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, New Mexico and Utah - from allowing workers to use driver's licenses as identification for employment.

Funk is the Washington correspondent for The Charlotte Observer. Chandler is a staff writer with The Observer.

Copyright © 2006 Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, All Rights Reserved.


2 agencies withhold key data on workers

Records could help find illegal immigrants

By Liz Chandler
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

April 23, 2006

WASHINGTON – Two federal agencies are refusing to turn over a mountain of evidence that investigators could use to indict the nation's burgeoning work force of illegal immigrants and those who employ them.

Last week, immigration authorities trumpeted the arrests of nearly 1,200 illegal workers in a massive sting on a single company, but they admit that they relied on old-fashioned confidential informants and an unsolicited tip to get their investigation going.

Finding the proof

Government studies suggest that reporting errors are so frequent that some companies must be aware they are employing illegal workers.

Federal auditors found:

8,900 of the nation's 6 million employers accounted for 30 percent of inaccurate reports.

40 companies repeatedly appear on the list of the top 100 offenders.

33,000 errant earnings reports were filed by one company in a single year.

4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers were submitted by one company.
It didn't have to be that hard.

The IRS and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of the bosses who knowingly hire them.

But they keep those facts secret.

“If the government bothered to look, it could find abundant evidence of illegal aliens gaming our system and the unscrupulous employers who are aiding and abetting them,” said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.

The two agencies don't analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud – and they won't share their millions of records so that law enforcement agencies can do that, either.

Privacy laws, they say, prohibit them from sharing their files with anyone, except in rare criminal investigations.

But the agencies don't even use the power they have.

The IRS doesn't fine even the most egregious employers who repeatedly submit inaccurate data about their workers. The Social Security Administration does virtually nothing to alert citizens whose Social Security numbers are being used by others.

Evidence abounds within their files, according to an analysis by Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Charlotte Observer.

One internal study found that a restaurant company had submitted 4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers. Other firms submit inaccurate names or numbers reports for nearly all of their employees. One child's Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states.

“That's the kind of evidence we want,” says Paul Charlton, the U.S. attorney in Arizona. He regularly prosecutes unauthorized workers but says it's hard to prove employers are involved in the crime.

“Anything that suggests they had knowledge . . . is a good starting point. If you see the same Social Security number a thousand times, it's kind of hard for them to argue they didn't know.”

The potential crimes are so obvious that the failure to provide such information to investigators raises questions about Washington's determination to end the widespread hiring of illegal immigrants at cut-rate pay.

For years, the illicit work force has ballooned.

An estimated 7 million unauthorized workers are gainfully employed in the United States. They're picking crops, building homes and tending yards in a shadow economy at work every day. In some cases, they work for the government on public projects that pay them taxpayer money. They've built roads in North Carolina, military housing in California and even helped reconstruct the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks, until law enforcement got word.

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They also work at airports, seaports, nuclear plants and other sites vulnerable to U.S. security.

Those are the sites where immigration officials have focused their attention. But on Thursday, they announced a new push toward busting bosses who hire unauthorized workers.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has asked Congress for access to the secret earnings files, a tool he says would help “get control of this illegal work force.”

The IRS wants to protect the privacy of its records because disclosing them might cause companies and employees to stop reporting income and paying taxes – and go underground where exploitation is more certain.

“At least now,” IRS commissioner Mark Everson told Congress in February, “we are collecting some taxes in these areas, and we are working to collect even more.”

The records at issue are the earnings reports, sent by employers along with money withheld for taxes and Social Security.

They contain workers' names and Social Security numbers, and when they don't match Social Security records, the information is set aside in what's called the Earnings Suspense File.

Created in 1937, the file contains about 255 million unmatched wage reports totaling $520 billion paid into Social Security but not credited to individual accounts.

Typos and name changes can cause wage reports to not match Social Security records. But increasingly, officials cite unauthorized workers using bogus Social Security numbers as a driving force behind the mismatched files.

The incorrect worker files mushroomed during the 1990s, as migrants poured into the United States. Almost half of the inaccurate reports come from such industries as agriculture, construction and restaurants, which rely on unauthorized labor.

“We believe the chief cause of (unmatched) wage items . . . is unauthorized work by non-citizens,” Social Security's Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll told Congress in February.

The IRS also receives the mismatch information. It tries to match workers involved to its records, then probes to see whether the workers are paying taxes.

Particularly disturbing is that possibly millions of the Social Security numbers belong to other people.

In Utah, after Social Security provided data for one criminal probe, investigators discovered that Social Security numbers of 2,000 children were being used by other people.

“What do you think we'd find if we had the ability to analyze all of their information?” said Kirk Torgensen, Utah's chief deputy attorney general. “It would be invaluable. How short-sighted is it that the government doesn't follow this trail?”

To work lawfully in the United States, individuals must have valid Social Security numbers or authorization from the Department of Homeland Security. But the law doesn't require companies to verify that workers give them names and numbers that match Social Security records.

So most companies don't check.

That loophole, created by Congress in 1986, makes it hard to prove whether employers know they're hiring illegal workers.

Some of the country's most successful prosecutions have come with help from Social Security, which will open specific files once a criminal investigation is under way.

Most immigrants simply use Social Security numbers to get work, experts say.

They make up numbers, buy them on forged cards or steal them.

But their demand has fueled a massive industry of suppliers who make fraudulent documents or steal real ones.

Federal officials downplay the risks that people face when others use their numbers for work. Safeguards are in place to protect retirement and disability benefits, they say.

Lenders, too, say most won't lend money if an applicant's Social Security number doesn't match the name on record.

But sometimes those safeguards fail.

Prosecutors and consumer groups say they see plenty of fraud committed with stolen Social Security numbers.

In Utah, prosecutors charged dozens of immigrants who got lured into a fraud ring to buy homes. The immigrants managed to obtain 87 home loans using Social Security numbers they'd obtained.

Jay Foley warned that obtaining someone's number can also be the first step toward total identity theft. He started the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego after his wife became a victim.

“Someone can open credit in your name. You can be hounded by collection agencies,” Foley said. “I've seen people lose their homes and their marriages over this.