The Numbers Game: How the State Profits from Its Scapegoats
The Hill recently published a rather breathless piece linking Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to a supposed giveaway that helps "illegal aliens" seize jobs, homes, and benefits. The argument, familiar to anyone following a certain brand of media, paints a picture of Uncle Sam inadvertently enabling a crisis at taxpayer expense, lamenting that these numbers somehow legitimize the
undocumented workforce. Curiously, the article neglects to mention a foundational detail: the ITIN was created by the IRS in 1996 precisely to ensure that individuals without Social Security numbers—including undocumented immigrants—still pay taxes. The federal government collects an estimated $9 billion annually in Social Security contributions alone from undocumented workers, money they often
never claim in benefits. This is not charity; it's an efficient collection mechanism, eerily similar to sharecropping arrangements that extract maximum labor with minimum social obligation. One might wonder why the narrative consistently frames these contributions as burdens rather than, say, a substantial unacknowledged subsidy. When foreign-owned corporations receive tax breaks or subsidies,
it's often framed as 'stimulating growth.' Yet, when the least powerful contribute billions, it's decried as a 'drain.' The double standard is a feature, not a bug, of an economic system designed to exploit readily available labor pools while denying them full rights and recognition. The current outcry over ITINs serves as a convenient distraction from the structural reliance on undocumented