Ah, the American dream. We peddle it around the world, people are suckered in, come here to seek it, then are hit with the stark reality.
Mistake costs dishwasher $59,000
For 11 years, Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, lived his version of the American dream in Stuart, Florida: washing dishes and living frugally to bring money back to his home country.
Two years ago, Zapeta was ready to return to Guatemala, so he carried a duffel bag filled with $59,000 — all the cash he had scrimped and saved over the years — to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
But when Zapeta tried to go through airport security, an officer spotted the money in the bag and called U.S. customs officials.
Officials initially accused Zapeta of being a courier for the drug trade, but they dropped the allegation once he produced pay stubs from restaurants where he had worked. Zapeta earned $5.50 an hour at most of the places where he washed dishes. When he learned to do more, he got a 25-cent raise.
After customs officials seized the money, they turned Zapeta over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS released him but began deportation proceedings. For two years, Zapeta has had two attorneys working pro bono: one on his immigration case, the other trying to get his money back.
“They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man,” he said.
“I am desperate,” Zapeta said. “I no longer feel good about this country.”
I dont understand how some of you americans can complain about illegal aliens coming into your country and doing all the shit jobs that you would never touch, for wages below what you would call acceptable, making goods cheaper for you.
Can’t speak as an American, but in the whole the problem with illegal immigration is that they undermine the whole social structure and system of government. Crimes get committed against illegal aliens, who can’t report it to the police, so they take their own retribution, or join gangs. The whole thing just creates an underclass and is bad business. So sure, you get cheaper goods/services in the short run, but in the long run you pay for it by higher social costs, higher policing costs, and by lowering your own wage (because, unless you are a senior executive of a wealthy company, the higher the wage the lowest run gets usually means the higher wage you’ll get…. and conversely, the less he gets paid, the less you get paid). If you look at the wages of different countries like Indian, Brazil, Mexico or whatever and compare that to the US, UK, or Europe you’ll see what I mean….
>>“Illegal alien” End of story. Too fooking bad.
Better if we had an “illegal” alien like this guy as president than the putz we’ve got now. At least this guy knows how to work for his money.
#33- of course, the problem there isn’t the aliens, but that our uneccessarily byzantine entry processmakes legal immigration so difficult.
i’d like to feel bad for this fella, but, I can’t.
1) He was here illegally.
2) He was an idiot for transporting that much cash.
What really sucks is the fact that this same thing could happen to a legal US citizen.
“They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man,”
No, you are a criminal. The key word in “illegal immigrant” is ILLEGAL hence you are a criminal
Shouldn’t $59,000 buy you citizenship? Hell, you can become a citizen of plenty other countries for less.
The guy’s tax bracket wouldn’t be high enough to warrant income taxes.
Charge the guy 7.5% SSA tax and a 10% penalty and give the rest of the money back to him. Then send him back to his country.
The sad part of this story is that its taking this long to DEAL with the issue. The red tape alone is embarrassing enough, but when idiots are running our government agencies it makes us look even worse, if thats possible.
PS: Its the people that complain about government that are the true patriots because they care. Its the silent citizens that should be the concern.
Well 33 you beat me to it thanks.
Had he entered the country legally this would not have been a problem. You may not like the immigration laws but just the same they are laws and until that change the law should be upheld. Perhaps it will send a message to people who enter this country illegally and work in the US illegally. I see no problem here other than the fact he should have not been in the US illegally. I heartless or cold….no, do I expect people to abide by the law….yes.
>>Crimes get committed against illegal aliens, who can’t report it
>>to the police
Kinda makes you think that maybe hard-working, honest people who are willing to do shit work for shit pay should be allowed to come into the country legally, huh?
Or maybe YOU want to wash dishes for $5.50/hr, and save all your pay stubs.
From the article for those (most) who haven’t actually read it:
“Now, according to Gershman, the Internal Revenue Service wants access to the donated cash to cover taxes on the donations and on the money Zapeta made as a dishwasher. Zapeta admits he never paid taxes.” (emphasis mine)
An amnesty i can support. YOu leave the country, and you get to keep your bank balance.
Hey, I thought minimum wage wasn’t a living wage? How’d this guy get 60 thousand?
To all of you hypocrites who feel that seizing 11 years of minimum wages as a dishwasher is justied because of his ILLEGAL alien status, how exactly do you square our national actions regards a democratically elected president of the country of Zapeta’s origin, namely Árbenz. In 1954 he was ousted in a coup d’état organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency, known as Operation PBSUCCESS, and was replaced by a military junta to advance the corporate interests of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala. I don’t hate America but I’m embarassed at what our Republic has become.
Look his savings are incredible, but still he is ILLEGAL! Does get get the befit of our legal system when he is not a part of the country? NO!!
I think it should happen more often, it would stop the illegal immigration dead in it’s tracks!
Then people can make a snap judgment without reading the article.
Oh yea you can set your payroll up to take out NO TAXES at all.
An illegal immagrant tries to go home, paying his own air fare and our government stops him? Two years and many lawyers and probably more money wasted than the $59K this guy was carrying. “This is our county…”
Easy:
1. Leave the money.
2. Get OUT!!!
He broke the law by entering the country illegally.
He broke the law by not paying income taxes.
He broke the law by not declaring the money he was carrying.
(BTW: Money that the SSA can’t account for from a legitimate SSN holder is placed in escrow and not distributed.)
If he felt good about this country, at least as anything other than an easy mark from which he could score some cash and run home with it, he’d have been here legally. Illegals take advantage of the system, what there is of it, and then cry when they’re caught because they’ve been educated about liberals. Sorry, no sympathy. Let the IRS have him. After interest and penalties he may have enough left over for some gum –which is probably more than he had when he jimmied the lock, kicked in the door, and broke into the country.
I have to side with the Illegal Alien crowd. You break our laws, you don’t reap the rewards of that action. Hard lesson.
At the same time, it isn’t hard to sympathize with the guy. Also, MikeN brings up a good point (first time for everything). How could he save that much if he only earned minimum wage?
>>If he felt good about this country, at least as anything other than
>>an easy mark from which he could score some cash and run
>>home with it, he’d have been here legally.
If you consider working for 11 years, busting your ass washing dishes, as an “easy mark”, go for it. You’re presumably a legal citizen. Push out some of them damn furriners, and take their jobs!
As to if he’d have been here legally or not, it’s obvious you know nothing whatsoever about the immigration laws.
#33 – Can’t speak as an American,
Why not? Too well educated 🙂 ?
but in the whole the problem with illegal immigration is that they undermine the whole social structure and system of government. Crimes get committed against illegal aliens, who can’t report it to the police, so they take their own retribution, or join gangs. The whole thing just creates an underclass and is bad business.
Okay… But I can say that about other legal groups…
First, leaving aside the legality of being in the country in the first place, many illegals do not fall into that trap. They work and keep a low profile simply because they know they have no rights…
You say illegal aliens can’t report crimes committed against them to the police. There are whole demographics of legal citizens in this country who rightfully fear the police. Low income urban blacks are in no hurry to report crimes to the police because that invites the scrutiny of the police… and their experience is that the police will find a reason to fuck with them.
This “underclass” you speak of existed prior to the massive immigration problem and as long as wealthy people are more valued than poor people in our society, it will exist long after the immigration issue is solved.
So sure, you get cheaper goods/services in the short run, but in the long run you pay for it by higher social costs, higher policing costs, and by lowering your own wage …
These same social issues are the result of barriers to better education and opportunity for the poor. We run a caste society over here, and the exceptions that will get pointed out are simply proof of the rule.
If someone makes money selling drugs, shouldn’t they be arrested ? Wait, maybe they were selling drugs to support their family so we should give them a pass…….
I understand why people want to come into this country, because it’s a wonderful country, but there are simple reasons for our rules here. If you open the door to one person, you have to open it up to everyone and then a flood of ‘everything’ comes in, both good and bad. It just doesn’t work. I always here that notion that illegals do the work Americans will not, well I have a simple answer for that, move people off of welfare and force them to take those jobs. – solve two problems with one solution…..
Where did he live?
A $5.50 Hr 40 Hr week he was living on less than half (If he wasn’t paying taxes). Where did the money realy come from. I wish governments would pay more attention to this. when people seem to have no income but have a house car and cash. Why do they not question where they got these things this would identify the underground economy you know the ones that don’t pay taxes so I have to pay higher taxes to support them.
People wake up!
He was probably a currier for a drug deal since nobody can save that kind of money working minimum wage for 11 years. I don’t care if he ate for free and slept in the cellar — his story is unbelievable.
Every study of immigration shows unskilled workers to be a net burden on SSI, schools, healthcare, etc. So yes, he was breaking the law and costing citizens money even if he was paying some payroll tax.
Oh, by the way a little lagniappe for the Dems — Thank Clinton for the absurd seizure laws. Even though he is a criminal, I am just as outraged when the government seizes anything without due process.
45. Ohfortheloveof: No, can’t speak as an American because I am not American. Raised in Canada, living in the UK. Took a bus through the US once, from upstate New York to Laredo, Texas once, it was great. Well, New York and Ohio where a bit frightening (most because people kept trying to aggressively push drugs). A friend of mine gave me some good advice for dealing with the South: Keep a bible on your lap, plainly visible to all. The religious nutters leave you alone because you already have a Bible and the drug dealer leave you alone because they are afraid you are going to preach at them! It worked like a charm.
Anyway, back to the points on illegal immigration: certainly the issues that affect illegal immigration are also the issues that face legal immigrants and other impoverished groups. Tackling illegal immigration isn’t going to solve all the problems, it just makes the problems less complex because there isn’t that added complication of all the people saying “fuck ’em, they are illegal” even if ignoring the problem is just going to make it work.
I suspect that most of the powers that be (if not all) have no real interest whatsoever in actually stopping the flow of cheap labour from Latin American because it serves to keep everyone’s wages down. Besides, all the successful lawyers who become politicians are successful at least in part because they have cheap, often illegal, nannies to raise their children for them!
However, going back to that trip to Mexico I was talking about earlier, one of the interesting things I discovered there, when chatting Mexicans in Mexico about illegal immigration to the US, is that quite a number said that they didn’t really think of it as ‘illegal immigration’ so much as trying to reclaim parts of the US that they see as stolen from them in the war of 1812.
I’ve also heard that many Latin Americans, like mentioned by a chap earlier in this thread, can see how the US have pissed about with Latin America since the 1960s, deposing of governments (or arresting them like they did in Panama), using the secret services to spread propaganda, and doing all sorts of nasty things (some real, some imagined). So for them, entering the US illegally is something they have to do because the US has mucked them about so much! Unfortunately, it also means that these people, very much unlike the Italians, the Russians, the Eastern Europeans and all that of the late 1900s, may well never feel like the US is ‘their’ country. And that is dangerous. A bit lit the King Aleric and the Visigoths that lived inside of the Roman Empire, never even wanting to be Roman Citizens, and who eventually brought down the western Roman empire….
#51 and all you others that say “How could he possibly save that much/must be drug money?!
Not everyone needs a 1000 sq ft. Condo/Apt. – new jeans and shoes 3+ times a year – Needs to shower everyday and when they do, need name brand shampoo’s and conditioners. – Drive to work/take public transportation – Have a nightlife – etc.etc.etc…
if you seriously look at what it takes to simply live… you’d be surprised when you see just how lucky you really are that you have the options to pursue your wants and desires.
This man simply lived. Worked. Saved. He tried to provide a better life for his family back home.
This is assuming he worked ONLY 40 Hour weeks, which is probably a low guess by 10-20 hrs/wk.
I’ll be the first to do a little bit of math:
$5.50x40hrs/wk x 52wk/yr x 11yrs = $125,840
$125,840 – 59,000 = $66,840 to spend over 11 years.
$66,840 / 11yrs = $6,076.36/yr
$6,076.36/yr… Think of what you can do with $6,076.36/yr after you strip out all your wants and desires…
The guy probably shared some roach infested 600 sq. ft. apt. with 5 people for $200/mnth.
$200 x 12 = $2,400/yr
If the guy walked to work… FREE
For the sake of argument, If he rode a bike to get around – $50-100 for an old cruiser + $20/yr maintenance ~$300/11 yrs (hardly a speck of his gross pay).
If he ate most of his meals at the restaurant while cleaning the plates (Don’t scoff, that happens all the time) his weekly food need may be as low as $30. $30 x 52wks = $1560/yr
So there we have possible food, shelter and transportation figured out
$20 + $1,560 + $2,400 = $3,980 That he hypothetically could basically get by on.
$6,076.36 – $3,980 = $2,096.36 left to fill in the gaps left by the hypothetical budget.
Get this through your skull, Hard working people deserve their hard earned compensation regardless of country of origin. What this man did was show up and work. He didn’t commit murder, or assault or even robbery. IF he were simply a citizen he would be appreciated for his hard work and dedication. But because he didn’t fill out a few sheets of paper… let’s take all his hard earned savings from and throw him out the door…
Shame on you rednecks.
Let’s do a little math here. Working 40 hrs. a wk. for $5.50 an hour is $220 a wk. Multiply that by 52 wks and you get $11,440 a yr. Multiply that by 11 yrs. and you get $125,840 gross, that is before taxes. Subtract the $59,000 he had with him and you get $66,840. Then divide that figure by 11 years and you get $6076.36 per year to live on. And this is all without taxes figured in, also it is without possible overtime, etc. Still and all, given the figures how does one live on that kind of money per year? No doubt the man was here illegally, but there is still the question as to how he accummulated this sum of money. Illegal, yes, deserve to be deported, yes, save this money by pursuing a minimum wage job, highly unlikely.
#58 – …Hard working people deserve their hard earned compensation regardless of country of origin. What this man did was show up and work. He didn’t commit murder, or assault or even robbery… …let’s take all his hard earned savings from and throw him out the door…
Shame on you rednecks.
I totally agree with you, however…
if you seriously look at what it takes to simply live… you’d be surprised when you see just how lucky you really are that you have the options to pursue your wants and desires.
…I do get sort of tired of being told how lucky I am because there are many with far less than me. It’s as if I’m supposed to feel guilty because I make a distinction between living and surviving… and I’m not greedy. A modest home, a reasonably reliable pre-owned mini-van, healthy food, a kick ass gaming PC, and a chair is about all I ask for and I’m certainly willing to work for it.
So far, I have that gaming PC covered.
I live in America. Growing up I was told over and over that in America you had many opportunities and all you needed to have what you want was to work hard.
That, it turned out, was a lie. But rather than just toss up my arms and say that’s the way it goes, I’d rather tilt at the windmill and hold America accountable for fulfilling on the promise… That, and I still work hard… sort of… actually I’m at work now… so sometimes I work hard… but… whatever 🙂
IF he were simply a citizen he would be appreciated for his hard work and dedication. But because he didn’t fill out a few sheets of paper…
Maybe… Despite a Suzy Ormond-esque ability to save, he’s still an ethnic minority doing labor in the service industry. He won’t be getting much respect for that in today’s world. Sadly…
#61 – Even though by allowing the illegals to roam free on your land
My land?
If you were US District Judge James I. Cohn, what would you have done? It’s clear that laws were broken. What penalties should Mr. Pedro Zapeta have had applied in the delivery justice for his failure to file the correct form and tax evasion infractions?
In pursuing this case, Judge Cohn had a choice, a criminal or a civil proceeding. Clearly, everyone who feels like Mr. Zapeta is guilty of something here would agree this should have tried as a criminal matter. Had he been found for a criminal violation, the fine would have been up to $5000 on the matter of the form.
Judge Cohn, however, instead chose to try this as a civil matter. What’s the liklihood he knew enough about the case in advance to suspect Mr. Zapeta’s guilt? Hard to say. We would like to believe our federal judges are honest and ethical and are commited to delivering justice. What Judge James I. Cohn did know in advance, and very well to be sure since this is the essence of his job, was that the damages Mr. Zapeta faced as a civil defendent against the government were vastly higher.
This is injustice, not justice.
As to the taxes, an appropriate claim for taxes due could have filed by the IRS. Even the additional punitive charges for failure to file/pay could have been applied. Damages would still not equate to the justice Mr. Pedro Zapeta has received as a result of this civil suit.
If anyone disagrees with this ruling of US District Judge James I. Cohn, they should let him know what they think. They should hold him accountable.
After a quick google search, this is the phone number to his office. You can leave him a voice mail by dialing:
1-954-769-5490
and then pressing 6
Or you could write him, this is his address:
299 East Broward Boulevard, 203F
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
and his email is cohn@flsd.uscourts.gov
This is a federal judge, he works for you.
Let him now how you feel.
The ironic thing is that this guy is now hear LEGALLY until the end of the year under his voluntary deportation order…
BTW, MR Mustard (#10), there is a way to have NO taxes withheld. On your W4, put “EXEMPT” where indicated, and your employer should not withhold taxes. Of course, (as my wife found out) you will need to settle up with the IRS at the end of the year anyhow…