A friend of mine is currently engaged to someone from Central America who is not here legally. Let’s call him, Bob. Now, I’ve always argued that immigrants are the ones getting a raw deal by working here illegally because they pay taxes, yet don’t receive the benefits of government service programs. To be fair, the numbers on the issue depend on where they come from. The most recent information from Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors indicates that over the short run, immigrants receive more than they pay; but over the long run they contribute far more. On a macro-level, year over year, undocumented workers pay $424 million more in taxes than they receive in benefits.
The question from me to Bob was how he pays taxes without immigration enforcement officers knocking on his door the next day. Apparently, the IRS knows that he is currently using a fake social security number, so they issued him an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITTN). He explained that just like most people, he trudges down to H&R block every March or April to pay his taxes. He even pays for social security, medicare, and unemployment insurance, even though he will never be eligible for these benefits. In general illegal immigrants also pay all sorts of other taxes as well, including sales taxes, gas taxes, liquor and tobacco taxes, and any other consumption tax you can think of.
The reason I bring this up is that it raises the questions of motives behind new anti-immigration legislation. If the government is not interested in policing hard-working, tax-paying, undocumented workers, who are they interested in policing? This is where the Arizona legislation is quite revealing. It specifically targets the laborers who stand outside Home Depot. And it targets people who are driving or walking the street who look brown. The goal is to find and deport visibly poor immigrants. The legislation passed by targeting the stereotype of an undocumented worker, and allowing the media extrapolate this stereotype (guy outside Home Depot) to all immigrants. The real argument over immigration has already been won by the racists and bigots. The debate should be about how to integrate immigrants; instead it’s about how to get these lazy, good-for-nothing slackers out of the country.
This debate reminds me of Reagan’s welfare queen and George H.W Bush’s Willie Horton campaign commercial. The goal of these ads and the coverage surrounding the AZ legislation is not to create racism, but to reinforce and provide justification for people’s preconceived racist stereotypes about certain groups. And just as people already assume that those on welfare are all welfare queens, people will continue to presume that all immigrants are tax cheating, day-laborers. While the legality of the Arizona legislation will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, the real debate in the minds of most American’s has already been won… at least for the foreseeable future.
No comments:
Post a Comment