Illegal immigrants stole 1 million Social Security numbers and the IRS remains silent

Once again the federal government has been exposed as an incompetent behemoth that is in dire need of a top-to-bottom clean out.

An investigation by the inspector general has determined that one million Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, and the IRS has never told most of the victims about the identity theft. And after a five-year-long investigation, the problem isn’t fixed, and the extent of damage to individual taxpayers’ files isn’t fully known.

The Washington Times reports:

Victims’ numbers are stolen by illegal immigrants who need to give employers a valid Social Security number in order to get a job. Employers are prohibited from probing too deeply into numbers, even when they suspect fraud.

But the IRS learns of the scam when the illegal immigrants file their taxes using a special Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) the agency doles out chiefly to illegal immigrants as a way of making sure they’re paying taxes even if they’re not supposed to be in the U.S.

Between 2011 and 2015 the agency flagged nearly 1.1 million returns where someone appeared to have stolen a valid Social Security number, the inspector general said.

The IRS did not have any new comment on the findings, instead referring reporters to an official response filed with the inspector general, in which the agency insisted it’s making progress.

And by progress, the agency means some sort of solution by next year. Small business commissioner for the IRS Karen Schiller said, with no hint of irony, “As we continue to battle and make progress against all strains of identity theft in the tax ecosystem, we recognized that we were missing an important partner in this effort — the taxpaying public.”

Out of the million or so affected, only 25,000 taxpayers have been notified. The IRS says there is a roadblock built into the federal law that prevents them from doing so. Commissioner John Koskinen adds that the agency isn’t in the business of immigration issues; only tax collection. In the agency’s view, most of the Social Security numbers were willfully given out by friends and family members of the undocumented immigrants. At one of the hearings, Koskinen said the agency didn’t want to pursue individual cases in fear that any illegals properly filing their taxes didn’t get chased away.

Now, more than ever, we need a Convention of States to end this abuse of Americans.