Claim: "Illegal workers contribute nothing to the infrastructure."

[BurtWorm]

Setting aside the article in the NY Times on Monday that reported on the billions of dollars illegal workers pump into Social Security, what about all the other taxes, in the form of user fees, everyone in the country pays. What about the money illegal workers pump into local economies? Do tax collectors discriminate against portions of a retailers or service providers' income based on whether it comes from legal or illegal workers? As long as anyone spends money, they're paying into the infrastructure. Right?

[LisaM]

1. It's the billionaires hiding all their tax money in the Bahamas

that contribute nothing to the infrastructure. Meanwhile, they raze hillsides for their huge houses, and they tear up the roads with their huge vehicles. Oh, and many of them hire these very same people to do their menial tasks. What are people in this country, BLIND?

[LiberalVoice]

2. Yes

And lets not forget that if it werent for illegal immigrants we would lose 60% of our annual produce.

[skylarmae]

3. lose it where? Will it just disappear?

IMHO if the fruit needs to be picked, it will be picked...

Fuck, illegal is illegal....What is the problem with everyone? Oh, the laws are just for some and not others, I always forget.

[cynatnite]

7. No, it just won't get to market

I lived in Rexburg, ID for five years and worked at a potato warehouse as a shipper. The potato industry is a major export of the state and majority of the work is done by illegals.

The human resource department protected the illegals from INS on a regular basis. The fact of the matter is that most of the people of working age wouldn't work in the warehouse because they felt the menial labor was beneath them.

If every illegal was picked up and deported in Idaho, the warehouses and farms would come to an almost complete stop and I'm not just talking about the potato industry.

This isn't about laws for some and not for others...it's about reality.

[LiberalVoice]

10. Who said that?

Who said laws are for some and not for others? And who do you think is going to pick our produce? Americans? Please...I'm not saying they are excused from the law. All i'm saying is everyone including our wonderful politicians are aware of the fact that 60% of californias produce is picked by illegal aliens. They turn a blind eye because they know they cant get anyone else to do the job.

[TX-RAT]

4. billions of dollars illegal workers pump into Social Security,

How do they get Social Security cards if their illegal?

[BurtWorm]

5. Here's the article

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

While it has been evident for years that illegal immigrants pay a variety of taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles out in pension benefits. Moreover, the money paid by illegal workers and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections.

[TX-RAT]

6. Lots of questions

If he's illegal he can't get a SS card.
If he uses a fake SS card, where doe's the money go? It's definitely no going to SS, they wouldn't know what his account is.
Somethings not adding up.

Sure would love to see how the times gathered the info for this story.

Thanks for the link.

[BurtWorm]

8. More from the article

IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.

Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.

The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.

In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.

[TX-RAT]

9. Thanks, answers my questions.