It seems the Golden State Fence Company, one of the firms contracted to build our +5 Giant Wall of Unstoppable Barrierness, has been busted for.... hiring illegal immigrants.

I tried finding this story on Fox News for amusement value, but it seems they aren't covering it yet. The story, courtesy of San Jose Mercury News:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16233831.htm

"The following year, government agents raided the company's Riverside headquarters and concluded that 110 employees there were unauthorized to work - including three who the company had been ordered not to employ after the 1999 audit... A 2005 audit of its Riverside office found 109 of 352 employees were illegal immigrants."

Shockingly, no mention of Prothero's Imaginary Aztlan Army in any of the stories I browsed. I wonder why zero media sources cover this issue!

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

The immigration problem on the corporate side is, I believe, merely a matter of enforcing the laws on the books. The laws are there, but catching someone for hiring illegals isn't half as sexy as busting a drug dealer, or catching a murder suspect, etc. It's like the whole gun-control thing, don't quote me exactly, but I read about a case where a town cracked down and starting enforcing the laws on the books. All the gun-control advocates started getting all giddy because it seemed, from an outsider's viewpoint, that new laws for gun-control were being put in place, when in fact all they did was what they should have been doing all along, enforcing the laws we already have. As for the media, again not sexy, corporate crime is so three years ago, its just not sexy, America needs their MTV and their Desperate Houswives, no one gives a #### about people doing the right thing, or getting busted for not doing the right thing. As for the immigration problem in general, well, yeah, that's a lot to talk about, and I'm still hangin from Dallah Ballah Thursday's at the Red Lion.

I'd say there's a disgustingly large number of people that would watch Illegal Bustin on pay per view.

I'd say there are a few reasons it's not seen much. The main one being that while it may be a bigger problem than Random Attractive White Girl Missing, most of the aristocracy in the US recognizes that illegal immigration makes them richer and more powerful.

I'm interested to see whether the GOP will try to make this their new fear issue. Making gay marriage more illegal just isn't bringing out the folks anymore, and in some instances (Wisconsin, Arizona in 2006) actually backfired. I predict the two caricatured factions of the GOP (crazy, science-denying fundamentalists and corrupt fatcats) will have to battle it out to see whether it is an issue in 2008.

"This settlement and guilty plea clearly show that employers who knowingly and blatantly hire illegal workers will pay dearly for such transgressions," Julie Myers, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

They can not know that the workers aren't legal? Are the employees paying their own taxes in the US(the employer deducts the income tax from pay here.)?

They can not know that the workers aren't legal? Are the employees paying their own taxes in the US(the employer deducts the income tax from pay here.)?

The company could be unknowingly employing illegal workers if forged documents, etc. were in play. (In those cases, they would end up having to pay taxes, and it's possible the IRS would catch the forgery, since the stolen identity might end up working in two states at once, etc.)

In this case, it sounds like they were just doing the more common "off the book" method where you pay the people in cash and keep two sets of books.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>The company could be unknowingly employing illegal workers if
>forged documents, etc. were in play. (In those cases, they
>would end up having to pay taxes, and it's possible the IRS
>would catch the forgery, since the stolen identity might end
>up working in two states at once, etc.)

Yes, and the company shouldn't be punished in this case. After all, they've payed taxes like they were supposed to. And this kind of system looks very detectable from the tax records. If the odd guy is some actual US citizen duplicated(meaning the guy exists), then there would be double tax records that would show. I think that these guys would stand out from the tax records for the government to detect.

>In this case, it sounds like they were just doing the more
>common "off the book" method where you pay the people in cash
>and keep two sets of books.

Yup. A dishonest employer can cover the tracks pretty well. Punishing them is part of the solution for the problem. The ways illegals can be exploited are fairly unethical and sometimes practically slavery(I've heard that some fruit farms in southern Spain have illegals working for them in poor conditions for minimal pay. That's practically slavery.).

As for America's Mexican problem, USA should collaborate with Mexico to find a solution for that. I've heard that the African country where Spain deported it's illegals back to(they've recently deported thousands of illegals from Canary Islands) put them in jail for the illegal crossing of border. But if Mexico let's the same guys try again, then USA has a problem.

Than it is a cost/benefit analysis to determine

1) Odds of being caught

2) Potential Fine

3) Potential Savings

If the odds of being caught are low, and the potential savings high, then the choice is obvious even if it is reprehensible and amoral. Unfortunately we've built a situation where a corporation (which is by definition amoral since it is not human) is somewhat legally bound to pursue this. They exist to create wealth for their owners, and since their owners (and largely employees) have little legal liability, the choice is not break the law or not break the law, but something like break this law and be less profitable or break that law and be more profitable.

There are several solutions, but in this case the company is (apparently) a repeat offender. The company should be liquidated. Their charter revoked. Period. A person would go to jail for life for this (it amounts to slavery) a corporation should (at the very least) be dissolved.

Tac has some non-mainstream viewpoints.

Addenda: Diamonds are worthless and help to perpetuate horrible atrocities. I hope no one buys them for Christmas.

>Yes, and the company shouldn't be punished in this case. After
>all, they've payed taxes like they were supposed to. And this
>kind of system looks very detectable from the tax records. If
>the odd guy is some actual US citizen duplicated(meaning the
>guy exists), then there would be double tax records that would
>show. I think that these guys would stand out from the tax
>records for the government to detect.

Hehe. You're giving way too much credit to the government in these sorts of things, man .

But seriously, even if appearing legal, these types of workers are not extremely high candidates for intense scrutiny by the IRS. Realize that generally they aren't getting paid much- even if they are feigning legal status. Maybe the odd illegal immigrant from time to time might pull off a high paying skilled job but by and large, these are not high paying positions which would show up blipping on any IRS audit radar. I'd find it hard to believe that 109 illegal immigrants in one place would be smoovely posturing their false legal status in a way that would trick an employer. As such I'd guess it wouldn't be too difficult to get a company like this on negligence for such an oversight and dock them anyways. But I ain't know legal dude so who knows.

As a side note, I'd be interested in hearing (but too lazy to look up) how many illegal immigrants are caught by the IRS via fraudulent tax claims. With the limited knowledge I have of how the IRS works and how employers work I'd bet some money that the number is very low.

>Yup. A dishonest employer can cover the tracks pretty well.
>Punishing them is part of the solution for the problem. The
>ways illegals can be exploited are fairly unethical and
>sometimes practically slavery(I've heard that some fruit farms
>in southern Spain have illegals working for them in poor
>conditions for minimal pay. That's practically slavery.).

Agreed on the first part totally. If you want to consider the whole thing a problem than punishment needs to start at the employer.

As for slavery, well, that's a pretty harsh term. Remember, the reason why it works (by works, I mean is able to exist) is because it benefits both the illegal immigrant and the employer. They get paid much more than they would in Mexico and the employers got his cheap labor. Simple, but not slavery simple.

>As for America's Mexican problem, USA should collaborate with
>Mexico to find a solution for that. I've heard that the
>African country where Spain deported it's illegals back
>to(they've recently deported thousands of illegals from Canary
>Islands) put them in jail for the illegal crossing of border.
>But if Mexico let's the same guys try again, then USA has a
>problem.

Ideally, yuppers. But when it comes to illegal immigrants, Mexico is like your bratty younger brother hollering for mom when you twist his arm because he stole your baseball cards then will laugh in your face as soon as her back is turned. Meaning, the Mexican government generally has no interest in nor means to stop the problem. And that's a big part of the problem.

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