Illegals - another red herring, politically

If the govt really wanted them out, they would be gone. If corporations/individuals want to cut costs where they can, what better way than to employ off-the-books workers to clean, for factory work, packing, slaughterhouse work, farm work, landscaping, restaurant work, house-cleaning. It's just like a tax break!

Not only that, and the real reason no one is rushing them out the door, a stunning two-thirds of illegal immigrants pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. Yet, politicians have popularized the notion that illegal aliens are a colossal drain on the nation's hospitals, schools and welfare programs — consuming services that they don't pay for. I've worked in hospital billing and saw firsthand who was not paying their balances off, and they weren't illegals and poor people.

In reality, the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified illegal immigrants from nearly all means-tested government programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization. The only services that illegals can still get are emergency medical care and K-12 education. I know I have never transcribed a report for an illegal, even working for Montefiore, Albert Einstein, Cabrini in the Bronx, and Hackensack Medical Ctr in NJ - all inner city hospitals.

What's more, aliens who are not self-employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks. Since it is the undocumented workers who  have only fake numbers, they'll never be able to collect the benefits these taxes are meant to pay for. Last year, the revenues from these fake numbers — that the Social Security administration stashes in the "earnings suspense file" — added up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus. The file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year. Ask your congress critters about that file when they tell you your Soc Sec has run out.