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June 24, 2007

The impractical side of the Amnesty Bill

As Reid, Kennedy, McCain and company attempt to resurrect their forged-in-secret, 300+ page calamity, supported by an increasingly hysterical Bush Administration indulging in the questionable rhetoric “the one thing that can't be acceptable is the continuation of the status quo … I consider that a silent amnesty” and malcontents like Trent Lott, “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem”, I could not help thinking about a case in my office that perfectly illustrates the impracticality of the “immigration reform” boondoggle.

Patterico has been running a series under “Deport the criminals first” with the few cases actually covered in the press of horrendous crimes that would have never happened if the illegals who committed them had been deported. Unfortunately, most crime by illegal aliens, like most crime in general, is never reported in the media and, thus, flies under the radar of the public. The county District Attorney office where I’m employed now counts over 30,000 cases in its system since the first of the year. I could tell you about the open cases against illegals that crossed by desk last week … the one concerning vehicular manslaughter or the one involving a group trying to bilk a senior citizen out of $15,000 … but I believe a case involving identity theft is more illuminative of the cynical con Kennedy, et al, are trying to pull.

Let’s call this defendant Carlos. Carlos entered the United States illegally in 1997. According to him, he purchased, for $3000, a birth certificate and Social Security card in 1999 (these documents belong to a real person). Carlos then used these documents to obtain a real California Identification card (he merely stated on the application he never previously applied for a CA id or driver’s license). He now assumed the victim’s identity and began working. He filled out his W4’s with enough exemptions to zero out any federal withholding and never filed any tax returns.

How was Carlos finally caught? Because in February of this year, the victim had his Social Security disability payments cut and also received demand letters from the IRS for back taxes and penalties. That was when the victim discovered someone else was working under his SSN.

It took the IRS and the Social Security Administration eight years to detect a discrepancy in their system. Eight years.

Not only that, but Carlos has a DUI arrest on his record from 1996 under yet another name (he plea bargained out, met his sentencing terms and went back to impersonating the victim). The victim also discovered his CA driver’s license suspended for unpaid tickets incurred by Carlos. To date the victim is attempting to work with the INS, SSA, DMV and various credit card reporting agencies to clear up his record.

Carlos is currently in jail under a no-bail Title 18 INS hold awaiting sentencing on this case. He was supposed to be sentenced in early June, but asked for a continuation because he wants “to get married before being deported.”

Both the SSA and the IRS have well-established, extensive database systems. Yet it took both agencies eight years to catch up with the discrepancy of one SSN both receiving disability payments and working.

We also know that US State Department seems unable to handle the 5.4 million passport applications it received since this past January.

Yet the pro-amnesty Senators would have you believe that a brand-spanking new bureaucracy, born Athena-esque the minute Bush’s signature is dry upon the bill, will be able to process 12 to 20 million Z-visa (unlimited legal status) applications (with only one business day allowed for background checks) where the IRS, the SSA and the State Department have so miserably failed.

When the investigating officer questioned Carlos about if he ever thought about how much trouble he was causing the victim, Carlos responded, “I never really thought about it.”

The Senators and the rest of the pro-amnesty advocates don’t have that excuse.

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Posted by Darleen at June 24, 2007 10:43 AM

Comments

"...30,000 cases in its system since the first of the year." In one office.

That is a stunning number of cases.

Posted by: Hugh at June 24, 2007 12:15 PM

actually, Hugh, that's county wide (and I'm not in Los Angeles county), however, the regional office I'm in accounts for more than one third of those cases.

BTW, that does NOT include infractions; which are direct files with the court from police agencies. Same as with direct-file misdemeanors... we'd only see them if the defendant doesn't plead to the court at arraignment.

Posted by: Darleen at June 24, 2007 01:48 PM

Fifi Bush (Felipe Calderon's lapdog) and his co-conspirators among congresscritters, Mass Media Podpeople and "big bidness" seeking to drive down American wages are intent on surrendering America's borders and will let nothing (especially nothing as piddling as the 80% or so of the "little people" who want enforcement of our borders to be a top priority) stand in their way...

I expect to see them all at the Republic's funeral, crying crocodile tears and laughing up their sleeves... And people wonder where the Colonists got the crazy idea for a Declaration of Independence detailing a "long train of abuses" though fewer in our subliterate society would recall earlier pressages of that document, say, the Peasant's Revolt of 1381... Yeh, Fifi Bush (Felipe Calderon's lapdog--it's an institutionalized position: Calderon "inherited" his "American" lapdog from his predecessor)and his co-conspirators have made it obvious that they think the peasants are revolting. And their attitude toward citizens they view as ne kulturni peasants may well get them the backlash they are earning.

Posted by: David at June 26, 2007 06:28 AM