Tag: undocumented immigrants
Trump Paid Less Taxes Than The Undocumented Immigrants He Attacks

Trump Paid Less Taxes Than The Undocumented Immigrants He Attacks

Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he was elected president, according to a blockbuster report published by the New York Times on Sunday.

The Times report also found that Trump is millions of dollars in debt, incurred through a series of failed business ventures — a fact that runs counter to Trump's self-made image as a successful businessman. Trump has also used his financial failings to avoid paying taxes, the report found.

The president has resisted revealing his financial information since the start of his first presidential campaign, despite promising otherwise. "I would certainly show tax returns if it was necessary," Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in 2015. Yet for five years, the president has failed to produce the documents.The president paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, and paid another $750 in 2017, according to the report. And in 2014, Trump paid zero dollars in taxes.

Conservatives including Trump often suggest that undocumented immigrants take advantages of government services without contributing their fair share. Throughout his first term, Trump has repeatedly cast blame on immigrants and suggested they post an economic burden to U.S. taxpayers.

"Our current immigration system costs America's taxpayers many billions of dollars a year," Trump claimed in 2017 during his first presidential address to Congress.

That claim does not hold up to scrutiny. In reality, undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes every year. In 1996, the Internal Revenue Service created a program for non-citizens who work in the U.S. to report their income. Non-citizens who do not have a Social Security Number — including undocumented immigrants — are able to file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. According to the IRS, 4.4 million people paid taxes using an ITIN in 2015, totaling $23.6 billion in tax revenue.

This raises the question: why would undocumented immigrants pay U.S. taxes if they are unauthorized to live in the country? Immigrants often choose to pay taxes in order to demonstrate "good moral character" when applying for legal residence or citizenship, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Undocumented immigrants who fail to pay their taxes risk deportation.

"Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, paid an estimated $328 billion in state, federal, and local taxes in 2014 alone," Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, told the American Independent Foundation. "It is outrageous that the average undocumented immigrant in the United States pays more in federal income taxes than the President did in 2016."

This contrast is especially ironic given Trump's tendency to deride unauthorized immigrants as irresponsible lawbreakers. Trump has a tendency to respond to criticism with projection — when accused, he accuses others of the same thing.

"Yes, undocumented immigrants are helping fund the very system that detain and deport us," journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who is undocumented, tweeted in 2019.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Trump Sending Tactical Units Into Cities To Round Up Immigrants

Trump Sending Tactical Units Into Cities To Round Up Immigrants

The Trump is administration is deploying tactical units into multiple sanctuary cities as part of an effort to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its campaign to detain migrants.

The units are being deployed “in order to enhance the integrity of the immigration system, protect public safety, and strengthen our national security,” Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lawrence Payne told the New York Times.

According to an email sent to CBP personnel, the deployment of the tactical teams will run from February through May.

The elite units, described by the Times as the “SWAT team of the border patrol,” will have gear such as stun grenades and have gone through training like that of the Special Forces. According to the outlet, “the officers typically conduct high-risk operations targeting individuals who are known to be violent, many of them with extensive criminal records.”

The planned deployment will affect cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit, and Newark, New Jersey.

ICE already operates in those cities and the deployment will add an increased degree of militarism to its immigration operations.

Donald Trump has often attacked and criticized sanctuary cities as part of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“The state of California passed an outrageous law declaring their whole state to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — a very terrible sanctuary — with catastrophic results,” Trump said in his recent State of the Union address.

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump complained about “left-wing politicians” who “support sanctuary cities that release criminal aliens directly into the American community.”

Under Trump, immigrant communities have expressed fears about agencies like ICE coming into communities and separating families from each other. In some instances, ICE has even apprehended and detained American citizens, despite claims that they only target migrants.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said that he would use a “deportation force” to remove 11 million immigrants from the United States.

“You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely,” he claimed at the time.

Multiple studies have shown that migrants are statistically far less likely to commit crimes than natural-born U.S. citizens.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Trump Threatens To Send Migrants Into ‘Sanctuary Cities’

Trump Threatens To Send Migrants Into ‘Sanctuary Cities’

Trump is growing increasingly unhinged over his hatred of immigrants, confirming on Friday that he wants to send people seeking asylum in the U.S. to so-called “sanctuary cities” as punishment to Democrats.

“Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities,” Trump tweeted, all random capitalizations his. “Only The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!”

There is so much wrong with this proposal it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, however, it needs to be said that White House officials explicitly told ABC News that this proposal was “floated and rejected” — a claim that was clearly a lie given that Trump just confirmed the proposal is still on the table.

Second, the premise that sending immigrants and asylum-seekers into Democratic-controlled cities is a punishment is so incredibly racist that it’s hard to believe anyone would think it, let alone broadcast it aloud as Trump is doing.

The people Trump is trying to weaponize against Democrats are families, many of them with young children, who are risking their lives to flee violence in their home countries. They are merely seeking the chance to live without fear and gain the ability to give their children a better life.

Yet Trump — as he’s said many times — views these immigrants as violent criminals and “animals.”And he thinks that by sending them into Democratic-controlled cities, they’ll bring so much crime and violence that Democrats will see the light and back some of Trump’s immigration proposals.

Of course, this is merely a racist Trump fever dream that will never come true.

Data show that immigrants commit far less crime than native-born citizens. And because Democrats are neither racist nor scared of immigrants coming to their cities — particularly cities that have specific policies of welcoming and protecting immigrants — they are condemning Trump’s proposal for what it is: a stupid, racist idea.

“It’s just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the United States and disrespectful of the challenges that we face as a county, as a people, to address who we are: a nation of immigrants,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Friday, according to the Hill newspaper.

Trump’s plan may also backfire. Sending immigrants to sanctuary cities, where they will be welcomed by residents and not demonized and otherized, is the exact opposite of what Trump intends. And threatening Democrats to cave to his draconian proposals — to give him what he wants or else — is not likely to work for him either.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Second Federal Judge Blasts Commerce Secretary’s Census Scheme

Second Federal Judge Blasts Commerce Secretary’s Census Scheme

A federal judge slammed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday for breaking the law and violating the Constitution in a scheme to manipulate the 2020 census. The case, initiated by a lawsuit from the state of California, revolves around a citizenship question Ross wants included on the census.

In his 126-page ruling, Judge Richard Seeborg found that Ross violated both the Administrative Procedure Act and the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution.

Seeborg wrote that Ross engaged in “a cynical search to find some reason, any reason, or an agency request to justify that preordained result” rather than working within the confines of the law.

A citizenship question on the census would result in undercounting Latinos and undocumented people living in the United States, thus undermining the very purpose of the decennial census.

In fact, Ross knew the impact of adding such a question and moved forward with his attempt anyway. Seeborg recognized the “unrefuted evidence” from Census Bureau staff showing a citizenship question would depress response rates among Latino and noncitizen communities.

California, home of the largest number of Hispanic people, argued that any effort to undercount people living in the state could impact their representation in both Congress and the electoral college, since both are based on population. In fact, the Washington Post previously reported that the overall result would benefit Republicans for the next decade.

Further, census data is used to allocate federal funds, so undercounting certain segments of the population could have dramatic impacts on both state and local funding formulas.

In the end, Seeborg found that Ross “acted in bad faith” throughout the process.

This was the second federal court to rule against the Trump administration’s racist attempts to undercount Latinos in the 2020 census. Earlier this year, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Ross made “egregious” violations of the law in his attempt to add the question.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case based on Furman’s ruling, with arguments scheduled to take place on April 23. The court will ultimately decide if the Trump administration’s racist attempts to manipulate the census are out of bounds.

Published with permission of The American Independent.