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One of the misconceptions about illegal immigrants is that they don't pay taxes. According to the Internal Revenue Service illegal immigrants "are subject to U.S. taxes in spite of their illegal status." The IRS has provided Individual Taxpayer Indentification Numbers that are used as a susbtitute for a Social Security Number for tax purposes.

 

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created in 2003 as a law-enforcemnt agency of the Dapartment of Homeland Security. It was created directly to be much more vigilant to immigration trends in the United States after the events of 9/11. ICE enforces policies such as the 287 (g) program, which is an agreement with local law-enforcement agencies to arrest illegal immigrants and turn them over to immigratoin officials.

 

Terry Greene Sterling, an award-winning journalist, is the author of "Illegal," a book that profiles illegal immigrants in Arizona. She calls herself "white woman in the barrio," because she grew up speaking Spanish as an anglo woman. According to her website she has been published in The Washington Post, The Arizona Republic, Newsweek.com and other publications. As of now she is a contributer to The Daily Beast.

 

Rodolfo Acuña has a Ph.D. in Latin-American studies and is the author of "Occupied America: A Hsitory of Chicanos." His book is an in-depth study on Mexican-Americans starting from the Aztec Civilization to the current wave of immigration in the U.S. Currently his book has been under attack from an Arizona law that bans the Tucson Unified School District to teach ethnic studies such as Mexican-American hisotry classes.