...and likes it!

Since illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system.

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

Um, okay. So he pays into the Social Security fund. But how many of the estimated 8 to 10 million illegals do that? No one knows:

It is impossible to know exactly how many illegal immigrant workers pay taxes. But according to specialists, most of them do. Since 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act set penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, most such workers have been forced to buy fake ID's to get a job.

"...forced to buy fake ID's..." Who is forcing people to do one illegal thing that enables them to do another illegal thing? That's points off for extremely poor reasoning.

And that goes for the rest of the story, which presents the illegal alien/Social Security dichotomy as some kind of system that is being unfair to illegals who end up paying into it. The unfairness that illegal aliens from Mexico experience is mostly from south of the border, in a country that has never figured out how to use its vast natural resources and industrious people to create a viable economy. That failure is responsible for sending millions of illegal aliens into the US every year, where in addition to paying into Social Security, many of them actually become burdens on the criminal justice, education and health care systems. I wonder why the Times failed to mention that side of the coin.

And don't get me started on the national security implications of a porous border penetrated daily by ruthless smugglers looking for a buck from anyone who can supply it.

(thanks to MR)