A group based in Malibu, Calif., has an idea for how to solve the illegal immigration problem in the United States, and it's as simple as two nickels.
Founded by former IRS special agent Mark Jason in 2010, the Immigrant Tax Inquiry Group is proposing to use taxes to help clean up the broken immigration system.
The Five + Five solution would grant illegal immigrants a 10-year work permit in exchange for two taxes: 5% of a worker's earnings would go to the federal government, while his or her employer would shell out 5% of that worker's pay.
That's 10 cents out of every dollar going to the government. Illegal workers and businesses that employ them would no longer be violating the law.
"The proposal that [Jason] has developed over the past nine years is placing a flat tax — 5% on the employee and 5% on the employer, so it's Five + Five," Sean O'Neill, a spokesman for the group, told Newsmax. "Those taxes would be collected by the IRS but distributed to the states on a per-capita basis using a program that we call the REALcard.
"The idea is that immigrants deserve that, but so do their employers."
The REALcard stands for Respect, Equality, Accountability, and Legality. With it, people who would otherwise be living in the U.S. illegally would instead have legal access to healthcare and English training. They would also be able to obtain a visa to travel abroad and a driver's license, depending on state laws.
Under the proposal, the spouses and children of REALcard holders would receive the same benefits.
Jason and his group have shopped around the idea in recent years, appearing at roundtable discussions on immigration and doing interviews with broadcast and print media. They have even taken the proposal to Capitol Hill, and O'Neill said some lawmakers' staffers are receptive to it.
"I've spoken to dozens of staffers," O'Neill said. "Early on, they used to call [immigration discussions] toxic because they didn't want their boss to lose votes. Now it's tribal because of Donald Trump."
The Trump administration has put forth multiple proposals and has attempted to stem the flow of illegal migrants into the U.S., but many of the efforts have been met with major pushback from Democrats and orders from federal judges. With another caravan of Central Americans currently making its way north through Mexico en route to the U.S., the Pentagon is dispatching additional troops to the border.
The Immigrant Tax Inquiry Group continues to pitch its idea behind the scenes as the nation grapples with what many admit is a broken immigration system with too many holes, vulnerabilities, and areas for improvement.
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