IN THE MIX:No humor in incorrect stereotypes

I was just minding my business at work this week and I received this e-mail that got me all riled up.

A member of my immediate family sent me a mass e-mails titled “Cheap Labor.” It included a list of all the ways illegal immigrants cost us all so much money and included an animated cartoon of a stereotypical Mexican crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s basically a list of all the things offered to low-income people in our country at the taxpayer’s expense. But it went a bit too far with references to all the crime, trash and graffiti that have to be dealt with — because everyone knows recent immigrants from Mexico are dirty criminals. I was also irritated by the misleading reference to earned-income credit.

I wasn’t shocked by the text. I have heard those arguments before. I was shocked by the fact that my family member sent it to me thinking I would find it funny.

I was also a little surprised that whoever originated the e-mail didn’t realize these sorts of things don’t do anti-illegal immigration activists any favors.

There are complicated aspects to the illegal immigration topic and I have had discussions with thinking people who disagree with me on the issue. In those discussions I feel like I can get a good understanding of their point of view and it even helps me figure out why I believe what I do. But sometimes people get into the argument who are uninformed, believe only what they want to or are way too racially biased.

I don’t usually give much credence to the arguments of those people.

The e-mail brought another surprise when I asked my dad what he thought of it. He said, “Well, I just thought it was funny. It was a joke.”

My dad’s pretty conservative and reminded me he’s always had a problem with things like welfare and charities because people take advantage of the programs.

His problem is with scam artists — that I can understand, though I’ve always felt it’s better to let a few people take advantage of the system than let a ton of people suffer.

Though the e-mail seems to take offense at those providing “cheap labor” while costing taxpayers money, I’ll give the writer the benefit of the doubt and say they may not have been referring to the American poor. Instead its focus is on undocumented workers who don’t pay taxes and get the benefits from the social programs.

We are just paying and paying for a bunch of poor people who should just live somewhere else.

Whew, I can just feel the love.

I decided to find out what the deal was with undocumented workers and tax returns. I found it hard to believe that if they didn’t file a return they’d be able to get these social programs. It turns out it’s becoming popular for workers to file tax returns in order to create a paper trail on their path to citizenship.

A New York Times article, “Tax Returns Rise for Immigrants in U.S. Illegally,” from April 16 said undocumented workers can use a tax ID number instead of a Social Security number to have taxes taken out of their income. At tax time these workers often owe the government money.

There are people who are paid in cash and pay no taxes, but I was surprised to see how many undocumented workers do pay their fair share.

The article referred to a man who had $14,000 in cash to pay the government his back taxes and another who was paying $400. It pointed out a woman who paid the government $3,000 throughout the year and then got $2,000 back. So yes, she got a return, but the government still made money on her.

The article made me realize there are workers too scared to file the return who just paid the employment taxes — using false Social Security numbers — and won’t get a refund. It’s their own fault for using the fake numbers, but the point is they do pay the taxes.

IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said, “Clearly, we maintain a separation between the two systems. We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not.”

Of course that information was missing from the nasty e-mail. It’s things like that that make proponents of immigration rights think opponents are just spreading lies in order to bring down Latinos.

If you have a legitimate argument, use it, but don’t just spread the stereotypes.

There are real people behind this issue and it doesn’t do anyone any good to talk about them as anyone less.