One Man's Quest to Detoxify the Immigration Debate
WASHINGTON, June 10, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- He has put four years of study into it and at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on June 12, he will be ready to unveil the details of a plan to change the immigration debate – a plan that eschews the toxic words "citizenship" and "amnesty." A third way, if you will.
He is Mark Jason. As becomes a former IRS special agent, Jason's plan relies on a tax reform to allay a lot of the anguish associated with undocumented immigrants already in this country.
"The plan is to issue a unique, renewable work permit valid for 10 years," Jason says, adding, "This will enable people who want to work to work. The plan alleviates the burden on local services like education, medicine, courts, and prisons."
At the center of Jason's plan is a tax of between 5 and 10 percent on the wages of undocumented immigrants, which would be paid by the employer and which would yield $100 billion over a 10-year period, Jason estimates. At present, illegal immigrants are paid, on average, 25 percent less than legal immigrants, so employers will continue to reap low-wage benefits, Jason says.
Jason's interest in taxes began in the 1960s with a paper on a Soviet "turnover" tax, designed to lessen cigarette use and vodka consumption, and continued while working with the IRS as a special agent, the California State University system as a budget analyst, and as a businessman.
Four years ago, Jason founded an organization called the Immigration Tax Inquiry Group and has been working on perfecting a solution to the undocumented worker problem almost full time.
"Many undocumented immigrants would as soon return their homelands to visit and have the option to retire there, but lack the papers to travel and fear arrest," he says.
Jason hopes one of the 2016 presidential campaigns will endorse the proposal.
WHO: Mark Jason, founder and director, Immigration Tax Inquiry Group
WHAT: News conference unveiling a "third way" on immigration reform
WHEN: 10:00 a.m., Friday, June 12, 2015
WHERE: The National Press Club, Murrow Room, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20045
SOURCE Immigrant Tax Inquiry Group
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