[lbo-talk] The raids against immigrant workers

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Fri Dec 15 10:44:11 PST 2006



> Do people on PEN-L and LBO-Talk know that the struggle against
> "identity theft" and "cybercrime" led the U.S. federal government
> to round up and process for deportation thousands of meatpacking
> workers in six states of the Union?

When I read that story, I was wondering if the (relatively common?) practice of undocumented workers submitting Social Security numbers that aren't theirs to employers was what is being called "identity theft" ...

There's a bit of controversy and pointing of fingers going on:

- IRS says "you must pay taxes on income" - Worker says "I'll gladly pay taxes, but I don't have a number" - SS says "you can't get a number unless you're a citizen or have DHS paperwork proving you can work here" - Worker shrugs - IRS says "Here's a number that's not your SS#"

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96287,00.html

The IRS also has a long-standing policy of not cooperating with other law enforcement agencies for crimes that aren't directly related to non-payment of taxes. That is, a request by DEA for anyone who filed their tax return with "Drug Dealer" as their occupation will likely be rejected.

At least that's what it has been like; in the future? Who knows. I don't THINK that DHS has had any luck asking for the list of numbers that IRS gives out as a way of finding uncodumented workers, but I could be wrong. If the list of people they were after was only 175, I doubt any large-scale harvesting is going on.

/jordan



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