Reaching for Legitimacy in the Immigrant Economy

Within a couple of years of meeting Diaz, they had moved in together. In 2000, Rosa Guzman gave birth to Edy Jose, and the newborn U.S. citizen suddenly gave her and Edy a new connection to this land. Increasingly, the couple began to reconsider their vague hope of returning someday to Guatemala. They questioned what the family would do there. Did Diaz want young Edy Jose to work in the fields? No, he realized, he didn't even want him to work in the plant nursery.

" No hay nada aqui ," Rosa Guzman's parents reminded her in their weekly phone calls from Guatemala. "There is nothing here."

They realized they wanted to stay.

Seeking Legal Status

From the time he began working, Edy Diaz understood he should file tax returns. It would help him achieve legal status if he wanted to remain in this country. Most of the 1 million immigrants in the Washington region, regardless of legal status, pay taxes, according to a study conducted by the Urban Institute -- with undocumented immigrants paying about half what the legal immigrants do.

At first, Diaz didn't file. Every week, his employer deducted an appropriate percentage of his wages for federal taxes, Social Security and workers' compensation -- thousands of dollars, as years went by. But because he was using a fake Social Security number, Diaz didn't expect he'd ever get a dime back in benefits.

In 1999, around the time he met Rosa, he decided to start filing, motivated mostly by his hopes of becoming a legal resident. He approached a notario -- someone who provides such services as legal advice, translation and typing services, largely to Spanish speakers. Diaz's notario was a Dominican with a useful background: He had once worked at the Internal Revenue Service.

With his guidance, Diaz did what millions of undocumented immigrants had done before him: He applied to the IRS for an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, which the agency issues to foreign nationals and others ineligible for Social Security numbers. The agency does not verify an applicant's identity and says the document is only for tax-filing purposes. Critics, such as the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates tighter borders, call the ITIN a "backdoor way" for millions of illegal aliens to receive U.S. government-issued identity numbers.

The IRS counters that the ITIN merely enables the government to collect money from workers who have "responsibilities under the Internal Revenue Code." Internal Revenue Commissioner Mark W. Everson testified to Congress in July: "Our function is tax administration. . . . If someone is working without authorization in this country, he/she is not absolved of tax liability."

Since 1998, Diaz says, he has filled out a 1040 form under his ITIN number every year, even though the W-2 attached to it bears his fake Social Security number. An accountant does the filing for him, and Diaz said nobody has ever asked any questions. In fact, every year he counts on a refund of at least a few thousand dollars.

Diaz said he has also used the ITIN to open bank accounts. For employer-sponsored health insurance, he used the fake Social Security number -- again with no problem. A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said that letters are sent to holders of Social Security numbers suspected of being misused, but if the letters are ignored, the agency has no enforcement power.

For years, Diaz had no idea who was behind the Social Security number, whether it was even a real person's or some arbitrary sequence of digits. It was only in 2000, when he applied for a loan to buy an Acura Integra, that the dealer ran a credit check and told him that the person whose number Diaz had given him was dead.

"But still, I can do something," the dealer said, and went on to process the loan. Diaz asked no questions. He just bought the car.