Even illegal immigrants in U.S. pay taxes

This goes against all the people who insist the people here illegally do not pay any taxes. DP

By Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal

AZCentral.com: LOS ANGELES - On a recent Sunday afternoon, construction workers, car washers, truck drivers and students crowded into Petra Castillo's one-room tax-preparation office in this city's South Central neighborhood. Most of those inside what was once the home of El Jefe Tacos shared something besides their need to beat this year's April 17 filing deadline: They are illegal immigrants.

"They are undocumented, but they want to do everything right," says Castillo, 50 years old, who has a no-nonsense demeanor as she juggles phone calls and customers, mainly speaking in Spanish.

Politicians and activists campaigning for a crackdown on illegal immigration frequently complain that the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented residents violate U.S. law by not paying taxes, as well as by being in the U.S. without permission. But . Castillo's booming business shows how some of the workers who are here in defiance of one arm of the U.S. government - the Department of Homeland Security - are filing federal tax returns with the aggressive encouragement of another - the Internal Revenue Service.

"The rules of this country say that everyone must file taxes," says Pablo Espinoza, a welder. "I am complying with the rules." The Mexican immigrant and his wife, Martha, who works in a chicken-processing plant, earned about $42,000 last year. Mr. Espinoza acknowledges that he and his wife are here illegally. But in every other respect, he says, they are law-abiding residents. "We work hard. We have a clean record. We file our taxes," he says.
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