The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.

The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.

        • Willie@kbin.social
          518·
          10 months ago

          I’m having a hard time believing that undocumented immigrants pay all their taxes. You can say they pay some for sure, since there’s no way they don’t pay sales tax and such. Wouldn’t undocumented immigrants not have to pay the largest tax most folks have to pay, though, since they likely wouldn’t be paying income tax? I suppose if they once held a work visa or whatever, and had it expire, and they never relocated or changed jobs somehow, they’d still be paying their income tax, but I feel like that’d be rare, unless workplaces have no idea when your visa expires, and isn’t required to fire you when they find out.

          I wish that article wasn’t about some random twitter post, and had more information in it. Maybe then they would have explained this. I would have assumed the tweet was BS the moment they said those folks don’t have to pay rent. Like… where did the person who believed that tweet think those fellas lived?

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            21·
            10 months ago

            Their taxes are taken out of their paychecks like everyone else. They just don’t get refunds and they don’t get to apply for social security or medicare or, in most states, even medicaid. That means that they get very little back for what they give.

            And if you have a problem with people not paying their fair share of taxes, start with Elon Musk, not some guy who’s picking fruit.

            • Willie@kbin.social
              36·
              10 months ago

              You’re assuming they receive paychecks at all, though. All undocumented immigrants I’ve known the situations of in my time (which is very few mind you, so it’s possible that this is not the norm) got paid in cash for the work they did, instead of getting a check. And I find it unlikely that the business or person paying them in cash under the table would have gone and paid their income tax for them and announced “These are the taxes the illegal immigrants I hire are paying!” and I even more doubt that the folks who received the funds paid their income tax on their own, since their employers were already playing on their fears of being discovered by the government to pay them lower wages than the market would normally accept (I want to say it was below the federal minimum at the time).

              While I agree that we should totally be getting more taxes from rich folks. It’s not really relevant to the current discussion about the taxes paid by undocumented immigrants. That said, I’m not super concerned about undocumented immigrants paying income tax, since it’s really the fellas who employ them that are the problem. I was only mentioning it because I was curious as to how true what that article was saying really was, since it did not match my experiences.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                9·
                10 months ago

                The first article I linked to shows they do indeed pay payroll taxes. So your personal anecdote does not trump the numbers.

                • Willie@kbin.social
                  61·
                  10 months ago

                  Dang bro, you’re right. I mistakenly assumed the article was over at the section where they presented me with other articles to read, since it didn’t make sense for them to show me that if the article I was reading continued. So from my perspective the article was basically “They pay taxes, we promise.”. They even used language that seemed to close out the article to me before that section by saying “More importantly, the claims about taxes, housing costs and immunizations are false.” and not elaborating further.

                  I wouldn’t have even made my first comment had I seen the section below, since they answered exactly the questions I was asking. Haha. I was about to roll in here and ask if we had even looked at the same article, before I gave it a second look. I guess in the end, we hadn’t.

                  This whole ITIN thing is interesting, I’ve seen the fields for it in the past, but never really thought about it too much since I always assumed it was for people who are in like… a transitional period of their immigration of sorts, not for fellas who aren’t supposed to be working. The article that the article linked about ITINs makes it sound like you can even get your tax return with it. That’s crazy, but it makes sense.

                  • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
                    7·
                    10 months ago

                    To add a different anecdotal perspective for you: I live in Texas and work in the construction industry. I work alongside undocumented workers every single day. Jump in the truck “Home Depot Handymen” exist but they are not nearly as prevalent as you seem to believe.

                    What most of the guys are doing is getting their hands on some form of fake documentation. Employers are obliged to look the other way until it becomes a problem and so the worker is pretty much employed the same as anyone else. They receive benefits, they pay taxes, they work longer hours than anyone else.

              • SaltySalamander@kbin.social
                5·
                10 months ago

                The vast, overwhelming majority, of undocumented immigrants I know, and I know a lot in my trade, receive a paycheck just like everyone else. And yes, payroll taxes are deducted from that check, just like everyone else’s.

                • Willie@kbin.social
                  3·
                  10 months ago

                  Yeah, I learned all about ITINs and other ways that these folks can get real jobs and pay taxes a few hours ago. It was quite an interesting read.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            20·
            10 months ago

            Sorry… so you’re blaming immigrants for the fact that Texas’ tax regulations are severely fucked up?

            Maybe Texas shouldn’t cater so much of their tax code to rich people? Shouldn’t that be the issue?

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                13·
                10 months ago

                Texas has one of the lowest state and local tax burdens in America. It also has no state estate or inheritance tax, while 16 states — including Iowa, Kentucky and Maryland — have at least one or both policies. Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for Every Texan, says high-end homes in Texas also tend to be under-appraised for tax purposes.

                “Texas does not require disclosure of the sales price at which real estate changes hands,” Lavine wrote in an email. “All but 12 states have some form of disclosure.” Large commercial and industrial properties in Texas also tend to be under-appraised, he adds. “In addition to lack of disclosure, large firms often abuse ‘equal and uniform’ appeals to lower their appraisal to the ‘median value of comparable properties,’ regardless of actual market value.”

                https://www.chron.com/politics/article/Texas-income-tax-property-laws-business-owners-16610385.php

                Texas’ tax code is the second most unfair in the US, and the state relies on sales tax and other forms of regressive taxation that fall hardest on those with the least means. Households earning less than about $21,000 pay 13% of their income in taxes on average. The top 1% of households, with income over about $618,000, pay roughly 3% of theirs. Wealthy people also can decide when and if to pay taxes in ways that people who earn wages cannot—for example, by timing when to sell a stock or other financial asset.

                The state’s tax code contributes to extreme levels of wealth inequality. The 66 wealthiest billionaires in Texas own more wealth than 70% of Texans combined. The wealthiest 1% of Texas households own $4.9 trillion, nearly half the state’s total wealth. Black and Latino Texans own much less wealth than they should due to historical and ongoing discrimination.

                https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/texas-wealth-tax-ban-was-a-mistake-other-states-shouldnt-repeat

                https://itep.org/whopays/texas/

                But sure, it’s immigrants that are the tax burden.

          • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
            7·
            10 months ago

            How exactly are you proposing that these people don’t pay property tax?

            I would also wager that the amount of unreported tip income is just as large a problem as undocumented workers from a tax standpoint.

              • SaltySalamander@kbin.social
                8·
                10 months ago

                So you’re suggesting that illegal immigrants should steal identities to pay taxes?

                No bud, we’re suggesting that they already do, because they’re given no other option.

              • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
                5·
                10 months ago

                No, he’s suggesting that your original statement (the one actually being discussed) is wrong. No one suggested that immigrants SHOULD do anything, especially identity theft. Your whataboutism has no power here. Stop embarrassing yourself.

      • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
        9·
        10 months ago

        What the fuck are you even talking about? Taxes pay for all of those things. They don’t just crumble to dust in the proximity of non-citizens.