'Jose Illegal' is a Lie

Look, the author of this email is obviously not fully schooled in all the nuances of tax and immigration law -- that much I'll grant you. But who is the author? Is this a respected spokesman who might be taken seriously by the media or by those whose minds aren't made up, or a concerned citizen blowing off steam and preaching to the choir? If it's the former, why don't you give us his/her name so we can evaluate credibility? If it's the latter, why are you wasting your time?

You're supposed to be bright people who know policy. Intellectually speaking shouldn't you be picking on someone your own size?

LV

The status of the author of the e-mail is completely beside the point -- for all we know, it may be (and probably is) one of those Internet hoaxes that has made its way through cyberspace written specifically to provoke xenophobic outrage. It turns out that those pro-American screeds often attributed to foreigners were actually written by Americans and published in conservative media.

BTW, as a free-lance moonlighting musician I'm one of those "Joe Legals" who occasionally gets paid "under the table"; however, I always report 100 percent of my income.

Voldemort, it's worth bringing this up because so many people will receive these kinds of anonymous e-mails and won't critically analyze them--they'll just accept that the information is true. And what's worse, they'll forward them to 20 of their friends, often with some kind of endorsement: "Can you believe this?" or "We need to do something about this!"

I've tried to debunk these kinds of things with friends and family members, and it's amazing what people will believe just because someone they know sent them this e-mail.

I get xenophobic, prejudiced emails all the time. What I do with them is promptly hit the "delete" button.

I always check www.snopes.com and then, if I find the info to be false, I send a reply message with the URL containing the correct info. That said, I didn't find anything on this latest hoax.

i agree with the one wanting to know who wrote it. if your be critical of someone wiht influenece thats one thing if it some nobody just spotting off, how is it it honest to use it in a broad sense to make your point. for onr illegals cost us a tone of money. as for the paying taxes part we know know why the government doesnt want reform, because they still get their taxes, just shows how much our representatives really care about us. this should be the story here not ridiculling some random post. wake up seriously. I would think a christian political site would be a bit better at being diserning. Do you honestly think the parties especially the democrates want reform to help the situation or for votes.

You miss the point. It doesn't really matter who wrote it because its purpose is to inflame, not inform -- and that doesn't jibe with a Biblical attitude. And did you notice how it was titled "Joe Legal vs Jose Illegal" -- the assumption is that the latter comes from Mexico. (Not to mention that it assumes that all folks from Mexico are illegal. There's more, besides.

We can Click on Spam button to avoid such Emails.

A couple of years ago, a local TV news anchor went to a housing construction site and talked to the owner of the company which was building the houses.

At the time she talked to him on the lot in the background men were doing framing work.

The owner said that he paid everyone who worked for him doing framing $12.50 per hour. The people who were American Citizens and legal aliens with green cards were put on his regular payroll and all regular deductions were taken from their weekly paychecks.

But, he paid cash to the undocumented workers. Therefore, they had more take-home pay that the others did.

Yes, he actually admitted that on TV.

I think one of the most difficult aspects to the debate about illegal immigrants is the hyperbole that always seems to surround it. I think at the heart of the issue is that most of the people who are arguing the "loudest" on either side of the issue already had their minds made up before they did any research. Then, in lieu of real research, they'll simply find "facts" (read: inaccuracies) to support whatever they believe in. It's quite depressing, actually, that the level of political and social discourse in this country is little more than a shouting match back and forth. It is, however, a nice change of pace to see a blog such as this that addresses the issues in an honest manner. I'm all for curtailing any activity by illegal aliens that will "hurt" the country or legal citizens, but making up lies to support one's views is not the way to go about dealing with the issue.

I think one of the most difficult aspects to the debate about illegal immigrants is the hyperbole that always seems to surround it. I think at the heart of the issue is that most of the people who are arguing the "loudest" on either side of the issue already had their minds made up before they did any research. Then, in lieu of real research, they'll simply find "facts" (read: inaccuracies) to support whatever they believe in. It's quite depressing, actually, that the level of political and social discourse in this country is little more than a shouting match back and forth. It is, however, a nice change of pace to see a blog such as this that addresses the issues in an honest manner. I'm all for curtailing any activity by illegal aliens that will "hurt" the country or legal citizens, but making up lies to support one's views is not the way to go about dealing with the issue.

It's insane to me that our government supports an illegal activity. Employees on payroll having taxes deducted are filed under SSNs. If
the SSN is invalid, then the IRS won't accept a tax return from the
filer, so the filer must get a ITIN instead. FICA and income taxes have already been deducted throughout the
year from the paychecks. The purpose of filing a tax return using a
ITIN after taxes have been deducted from a person using a fake or stolen
SSN to work is so that the illegal immigrant can get a refund on part
or all of income taxes paid and to create a paper trail of tax returns
that benefit the illegal immigrant's case if he or she ever qualifies
for a green card. Deductions for dependents such as a spouse or
children and child care tax credits make it possible for low-wage
workers, including illegal immigrants to get a full income tax refund. The IRS does not report flagged SSNs to ICE, so illegal
immigrants using ITINs to file tax returns and get refunds do not risk
deportation.