One the one hand, a Louisiana Member of Congress is taking action
against what almost certainly is fraudulent transfer of taxpayer money to
illegal aliens. On the other hand, state government inaction and local
government and special interest actions in the New Orleans area do nothing to discourage, if not actually
aid and abet, the very activities that lead to this taxpayer fraud in the
billions of dollars – all against the backdrop of illegal behavior encouraged by
the strange bedfellows of business and “social justice” special interests that
threatens the rule of law.
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on
Oversight, Rep. Charles Boustany
contacted
the Internal Revenue Service concerning a disturbing report issued by the
Inspector General’s Office of the Department of the Treasury (which oversees
the IRS). It revealed just in 2011 a series of suspicious requests for Taxpayer
Identification Numbers, which may be used to receive benefits and refunds from
the federal and some state governments, as well as suspicious tax refund
requests that were paid out. Worse, the information was easily noticeable and,
worst of all, procedures that could have spotted it were deliberately
discouraged by some IRS employees for a decade.
While the TIN program has a legitimate rationale, to aid people not in
the Social Security system with financial transactions with the federal
government, the deliberate laxity in its operation probably has resulted in a
large number of illegal aliens allowed to exploit the system and obtain
taxpayer dollars illegally. The agency claims new procedures will prevent this,
but what of the potentially millions of illegal aliens already allowed into the
system?
Meanwhile, on this issue last year Gretna decided to aid lawbreakers as
well. For years, a place of congregation for day laborers – most of whom
probably are illegal aliens – was creating traffic and other problems. So,
instead of vigilant enforcement and alerting federal authorities that employers
might be picking up for work illegal aliens at this location, eventually the
city decided to build, at taxpayer expense, an area where they could congregate
to solicit their labor. What’s next, creating a red light district as a “safety
zone” for prostitutes and their customers?
The state might have been able to do something about this had the
Legislature had the foresight to pass in 2010 a bill
that would have allowed verification of identities of those seeking employment
and penalties to those transporting aliens and employing them without due
diligence in determining their citizenship status. Instead, the bill never made
it past its first committee hearing.
And this attitude is encouraged by special interests that support
lawlessness. One such group, the New Orleans
Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, defends 32 illegal aliens scheduled
for deportation, who allege that’s because they blew the whistle on
employers underpaying or not paying them at all. So what? The employers need to
be prosecuted by the law, and the illegal aliens deported according to and not
protected from the law. To do otherwise is to subvert the rule of law, even if
that is encouraged on this issue from the Pres. Barack Obama
White House on down by his deliberate selective bending of the rules.
Distressingly, instead of condemnation of this attitude among cultural and
government elites, it is the subject
of hagiography.
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