Illegal immigration and immigration reform remains a major bone of contention in Congress, with a flurry of warring executive orders and law changes likely coming in the near future.
Does the current enforcement (or lack thereof) of existing immigration laws lay the groundwork for economic doom and increase national security risks? Folks who live in border states have been crying out for border security enforcement for decades and their voices got a lot louder last summer when hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant children walked across the line between Mexico and Texas.
State and local law enforcement officers have been struggling to maintain order and protect private property in border states and are often called to task for daring to adhere to federal laws. Several recent legal and fiscal issues could drastically impact American taxpayers not just in border states but around the country.
Joe Arpaio is being blocked for conducting illegal immigration workplace raids by a federal judge. The Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff and his attorneys are prepared to fight the court order. Sheriff Joe Arpaio had been conducting raids which targeted suspected illegal aliens working at Maricopa County businesses until Judge David Campbell ordered the actions stopped last week.
Sheriff Arpaio cannot engage in any more illegal immigrants workplace raids while the federal preliminary injunction remain in place. The Maricopa County raids reportedly resulted in approximately 1,000 identity theft arrests. The illegal immigration raids conducted by Sheriff Arpaio’s deputies sought individuals using fake or stolen Social Security numbers and other identifying documents in order to gain employment.
“Plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits, that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunction and that the balance of equities and public interest favor an injunction,” federal judge David Campbell wrote in the Joe Arpaio illegal immigration decision.
Critics of the decision feel that the public interest is best served by finding and arresting lawbreakers. Illegal immigrants arrested by Sheriff Joe Arpaio committed one crime by entering the United States illegally and a second crime, if convicted of using fraudulent or stolen Social Security numbers. Supporters of the federal decision feel that the case illustrates why immigration reform is needed such action could prevent identity theft in the future.
Arpaio bluntly stated that the illegal immigration raids are necessary because the federal government has failed in its duty to enforce immigration laws – statutes which many feel aid in national security efforts. U.S. Border Patrol agents have captured hundreds of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican Border which hail from countries on the terrorism watch list.
http://youtu.be/Yfj2uRi4VcM
“The citizens of Maricopa County have been stripped of another protection that this state has attempted to enact to protect the integrity and identity of its citizens,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
Puente Arizona, an immigration rights organization, director Carlos Garcia, said, “We hope that justice will continue to prevail, that not one more worker is arrested for providing for his or her family, and that the racist, anti-immigration machine for which Arizona is known is dismantled completely.”
The Arizona ban on driver’s licenses of illegal immigrants and a human smuggling law have also been overturned.
Illegal immigrants will now be receiving “extra tax refunds” from the IRS. On Tuesday IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed that President Barack Obama’s new immigration policies, which have been dubbed amnesty by opponents, allow illegal aliens to garner tax refunds for money they earned while working illegally in the United States.
IRS tax refunds for illegal immigrants who were granted “amnesty” under executive orders by President Obama, will be given Social Security numbers. Once a number has been issued, the illegal immigrant can go back up to three years and amend tax forms in order to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. Allowing illegals to claim the tax credit designed to aid low income families, the IRS (i.e. American taxpayers) could be on the hook for billions of dollars in refunds, according to a Washington Times report.
Commissioner Koskinen said that illegal immigrants will have to have already filed IRS forms for the back years in order to get the enhanced tax refund. The IRS commissioner added that there is a statute of limitations on how far back the federal agency can go when it comes to amending or filing returns, the “agency’s current interpretation” such laws would permit them to retroactively permit the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) refund immediately.
“This is the problem you get into, is the IRS’s interpretation of the EITC eligibility requirements undermines congressional policy for not rewarding those working illegally in the United States,” Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is demanding a solution to the tax loophole, said.
The tax loophole Senator Grassley is referring to pertains to the way the IRS handles illegal immigrants working in the United States overall. According to Grassley, the IRS wants to be paid taxes on the wages of those who work regardless of their legal status.
To accomplish this tax the IRS reportedly issued millions of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, ITINs, to illegal immigrants. If the illegal alien earned enough money to pay taxes he or she would be legally liable to do so, but if the worker did not reach such a fiscal threshold, a tax refund would be issued.
Illegal immigrants will also soon be allowed to enlist in the United States military. The Department of Defense (DOD) is going to allow President Barack Obama’s “Dreamers” who entered America illegally as children, to join the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The move has drawn quick and sharp backlash form some. Many opponents are questioning the move due in at least small part to the massive “firings” of active duty soldiers. The pink slips have reportedly been handed out to men and women serving both at home and in combat zones, due to budget cuts.
The Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) permits military recruiters to expand the search for foreign nationals with “unique skills,” The Military Times reports. The Defense Department is willing to “let in” up to 1,500 illegal immigrants who qualify for a deportation reprieve under the President Obama’s 2012 so-called Dreamers Act – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. The executive order applies to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before they were 16 years old. Enlistment in the U.S. Military could become the first step to citizenship for the illegal immigrants.
The Military Times also had this to say about illegal immigrants joining the Armed Forces, “The new DOD policy may be the first phase of a broader government wide effort to ease pressure on immigrants and create new paths to citizenship. President Obama, frustrated with the failure of Congress to pass any substantial immigration reform, has vowed to aggressively use his presidential authority to change the way immigration policies are carried out.”
The Army is in the midst of reducing its ranks from approximately 520,000 soldiers. Cutting the fighting force’s numbers to 440,000 due to budget cuts have some lawmakers and citizens concerned about the nation’s military readiness.
Do you think unchecked illegal immigration poses both economic and national security risks for the United States?