More at Politico on the “stimulus” checks for illegal aliens issue. My problem with this kind of kerfuffle is that it can miss the bigger point — yes, of course it’s bad to mail government checks to illegal aliens, but it’s just a symptom of a much bigger problem. Once you let large numbers of illegal aliens (or any kind of unskilled, uneducated workers) into a modern society, taxpayers are going to be hit with huge costs — there’s just no way to avoid it.

Maybe the biggest problem is that our Lawgivers seem to have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. The bullet points below (interspersed with my comments) are from a fact sheet circulating on the Hill, which apparently comes from Boehner’s office, though I’m not positive of that (Michelle has also included it in her post on the subject):

Fact Sheet: Illegal Immigrants & Checks
* The procedures in this agreement are similar to what was done in the tax relief laws of 2001 and 2003.

That’s encouraging.

* Illegal immigrants who steal or fabricate a Social Security number are NOT ELIGIBLE to receive checks under the House bill. As long as a tax return is accompanied by a valid Social Security number, the IRS has no capacity to know whether a given tax return was filed by a citizen, a legal immigrant, or an illegal immigrant. Illegal immigrants, of course, don’t have their own Social Security number, so if they file with the IRS, as the IRS believes very few do, they must take one of the following three routes, any one of which could lead to their being identified as committing fraud, and increasing the likelihood that they will be located and deported.

Well, actually, lots of illegals have valid SSNs, namely those who used to be legal and were issued a number (such as foreign workers, certain students, and others), and then became illegal by not leaving when their time expired.

(Such visa overstayers account for at least one-third of the illegal population.) Or legal residents who were deported for crimes, and then came back — it’s not like their SSNs are canceled or flagged. Neither the IRS nor the Social Security Administration knows who they are, so checks are coming to them.

* They could use someone else’s stolen Social Security number. That is fraud, which the IRS attempts to identify both on a real-time basis and as part of its ongoing enforcement and program integrity efforts.

Yes, it’s fraud, and it’s widespread. The Treasury’s Inspector General reported (long pdf here) that “We found unauthorized resident aliens had used approximately 265,000 SSNs that the Social Security Administration (SSA) had assigned to other individuals. Under current law, the IRS is prohibited from sharing this information with the SSA.” I kid you not.

* They could fabricate a Social Security number. Tax returns accompanied by non-existent Social Security numbers should be rejected as invalid, although much of that enforcement currently occurs through on-going program integrity efforts (as opposed to identifying the error in real-time and flagging the return for further attention). Nevertheless, those who use such fabricated numbers face real risks of being identified as committing tax fraud and facing resulting penalties.

True enough.

* They could obtain an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number). ITINs, however, are not valid for work and illegal immigrants who enter the workforce generally do not attempt to use an ITIN either as proof of employability or for the purpose of filing a tax return, because an ITIN on a tax return is a clear indication it was filed by a non-citizen.

This is the biggest whopper. (We wrote on ITINs a few years back here.) Illegals “generally” don’t file returns with ITIN’s? Tell that to the IG who, in the above report, found that in 2000, more than 300,000 illegals filed returns with an ITIN on the Form 1040 and a fake or stolen SSN on their W-2 form. So, the report says, “the IRS is able to identify some unauthorized resident aliens by using ITIN records.” That’s nice, but here’s the kicker: “However, the tax law generally prohibits the IRS from sharing this tax return information with other Federal Government agencies.” In other words, the fact sheet’s claim that illegals trying to get a stimulus check “could lead to their being identified as committing fraud, and increasing the likelihood that they will be located and deported” is simply untrue.

To sum up — hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are going to get checks from this ridiculous stimulus package. But it’s hard to argue that trying to plug that specific hole will fix anything — the problem is that the IRS issues tax ID numbers to illegal aliens (numbers now widely accepted by banks, mortgage companies, etc.) and that the IRS, Social Security, and Homeland Security aren’t authorized to cooperate in rooting out and apprehending illegal aliens. Not to mention that the Social Security Administration is actually barred by court order from informing employers that they have people on their payroll with fake or mismatched SSNs.

If the checks-for-illegals controversy is to have a point, it should be to highlight the need for these kind of broader changes, not just sticking bubble gum on one hole in a sinking ship.