“The Great Divide”

Although it is known in our nation’s capital as “The Great Divide,” at least one veteran journalist points out that the divisions of opinion on the issue of illegal immigration are between the Washington elite and the rest of the country.

Terence Jeffrey, the editor of Human Events, tackled the issue of illegal immigration, known in DC as “The Great Divide.” “The majority of America thinks illegal immigration is bad, while the majority of Washington thinks that illegal immigration is good,” said Jeffrey in a forum on July 9th.

“Many Mexicans are uneducated, unskilled, and will work for nothing,” the editor of the nation’s oldest conservative weekly newspaper said. Furthermore, “Corporate management wants this situation, while they exploit labor and impair native citizens.”

“As for the guest worker program, is there anything more un-American, other than slavery?” asked Jeffrey. Forcing someone to work in a particular category of the labor force has never been a part of American history.

And many visitors may not even be of Central American origin. “Al Qaeda has thought about using the southwest border to infiltrate our country; it is easier to get in illegally than through standard VISA measures,” Jeffrey pointed out.

On the forum sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, Jeffrey stated that:

• The Social Security Agency sends letters to individuals and employers who have submitted invalid W2 forms. If .5% of this happens within an agency, the names of the employees are put on file.

• In October of 2004, there was an audit of 100 employers who had employed the most illegal aliens. Coming out on top was an Illinois-based employer, boasting 131,191 bad W2’s, which came to 12 percent of their payroll. This particular employer had the option of checking these social security numbers before hiring, for free.

• The runner-up was a Texas-based employer. While Bush was the governor of Texas, 108,322 illegal immigrants were working at this company.

• The Social Security Administration won’t give out the names of the employers, because it is against IRS law.

• One of the companies in the top 10 is a state government agency. The Social Security Administration won’t give out the name of the state, because it is against IRS law.

• The IRS is supposed to fine these agencies $50 per bad W2. When the Government Accountability Office looked at this, they found that the IRS had never once fined an employer.

Jeffrey closed with a clear call to action: “Bush should demand that Congress pass this: The Social Security Administration should give this list to Homeland Security. They can start investigating these organizations one by one, and bust all of them.” Jeffrey did outline some reasoning behind slow movement in this direction. “There is a tremendous disincentive for this, which is that corporate businessmen will be exposed,” he concluded.

Mary Kapp is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run jointly by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.