Not really my worry but some American people’s worry.
Here are some stats from 2017 which show which jobs illegal immigrants have taken.
This statistic shows the estimated percentage of employed undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2016, distinguished by industry.
www.statista.com
The percentages would like have increased now since Biden’s term.
Thanks. It sure looks like a lot of undocumented workers are employed here. I wasn't aware of that. BTW, a later version of the link you provided says
12.7% of agricultural workers are undocumented.
I am really confused how this happens. It is illegal to hire undocumented workers. A company can be in serious legal jeopardy for doing this. My research so far says there are two common ways this still gets done: either the undocumented worker submits fraudulent documentation, or the employer treats the worker as a contractor.
If the worker is hired fraudulently as a worker, the worker needs to submit a SSN or TIN. If the number is fraudulent, payroll taxes get taken out to that fraudulent number. What happens at tax time? According to ChatGPT (not the best source, I know, but that is what I found):
What Happens When the Worker Is Using a Fraudulent SSN:
- During the year:
- Employer withholds taxes and issues a W-2 using the SSN the worker provided (even if it's fake or stolen).
- Taxes are sent to the IRS and Social Security Administration under that SSN.
- At tax time (January–April):
- The employer sends a copy of the W-2 to the IRS.
- The IRS expects a tax return (1040) from whoever owns that SSN.
- If the real owner of the SSN is a dead person, or a child, or someone unaware, no tax return shows up for that W-2.
✅
Result:
- The IRS sees a W-2 attached to an SSN... but no matching 1040 tax return.
- The IRS basically parks that tax money and flags the record.
- The Social Security Administration puts the wages into a "suspense account" because it cannot properly assign the earnings to any living worker.
- What happens next?
- Usually, nothing happens to the employer or the worker, unless there’s an audit or the fraud is somehow detected.
- The government keeps the withheld taxes — and the undocumented worker never gets a refund, nor can they claim Social Security benefits later.
- It’s essentially "free" tax money for the government.
So apparently the tax money gets taken out without ever being reconciled with a 1040 return. The government is getting tax money, so it is happy. The company gets good labor, so it is happy. The undocumented worker is getting paid much more than he would elsewhere, so he is happy. Everybody is happy, so nobody complains. Cheers!
If, on the other hand, the company hires the undocumented worker as a "contractor", the government apparently issues that "contractor" an ITIN for tax identification purposes and taxes get deducted. Again, the government apparently does not check if any of this is documented in legitimate business tax returns. The government gets taxes, the company get a good worker, the worker gets paid, and everybody apparently looks the other way.
Anyway, that is what I am finding. If anybody has further insight into this, please share.
That is a long sidetrack to get to the point. OK, undocumented workers are being hired. Now, the question is, what should be done about it? My suggestion is that all of this should be cleaned up. Some undocumented workers could be approved to continue working, getting paid, and filing taxes, but with very limited government benefits. Perhaps there should be some additional penalty imposed due to the fact that this person basically jumped in line, getting into the system ahead of others that waited. On the other hand, other undocumented workers could get deported.
And how do we decide who gets what treatment? I would call on two basic principles: Show mercy and be just. I personally would put more emphasis on showing mercy than being just, but both are important. How does that all work out? That is above my pay grade.
Others are far more interested in the justice aspect when dealing with undocumented workers. "Those workers jumped in line. Get them out of here." But that strategy could be immensely harmful to the government who is collecting all those taxes; to the companies that get all those good workers; and to the undocumented workers and their families that are doing much better here than they would elsewhere.
If we were to insist on extreme retribution against these workers without mercy, then that looks more to me like "Make America Hate Again" instead of "Make America Great Again".