I have been something of a skeptic of the narrative of the IRS Exempt Division targeting conservative organizations. As a matter of fact, one of my less than attentive commenters recently accused me of being, if you will excuse the expression, a Democrat. So when I see something, otherwise unremarked, that might support the narrative, I’m going to take notice. Such is Private Letter Ruling 201527043. The PLR is a denial of exempt status to an organization that I will call Ticket Back Home (TBH). (The public version of a private letter ruling does not include identifying information, so when I write about them I try to make up an appropriate name.)
hard-working men and women have seen their job security, their benefits, and their paychecks shrink as forced and unfair competition from illegal workers strikes right at the heart of Americans’ middle class hopes and dreams.
Your activities are intended to improve the labor market conditions for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants by reducing the number of undocumented aliens in the U.S. labor market. You believe that entry level workers should benefit from the repatriation of undocumented aliens who can affect the availability of scarce jobs in the United States.. Your application materials include a brochure in which you state the following:
It’s time the damage to the American worker stop;
the poorest of Americans are negatively impacted by illegal immigration;
hard-working men and women have seen their job security, their benefits, and their paychecks shrink as forced and unfair competition from illegal workers strikes right at the heart of Americans’ middle class hopes and dreams.
You plan to screen undocumented aliens to identify those persons who are most likely to return home and least likely to seek to reenter the United States illegally. The selection of individuals for assistance is primarily based upon the results of fact-finding interviews. Your staff includes multilingual individuals to conduct interviews, which are usually in Spanish …..
You do not intend to assist any undocumented alien who has already been deported, because such persons may be more likely to return to the U.S. illegally.
Your organizing documents expressly empower you to “protect the American worker by arranging, assisting and facilitating the repatriation of undocumented aliens who wish to return to their own countries but who are unable to return because of their lack of resources.” As explained below, such activities do not further exempt purposes.
Undocumented aliens are not a charitable class per se. And while a person’s inability to return to his home country because of a lack of resources may be the result of poverty or distress, your actual operations show that you are not concerned with identifying and assisting the poor and distressed among the undocumented aliens, but only with identifying those most likely to return home and least likely to seek to reenter the United States illegally.
Furthermore, even if the undocumented aliens you assist were poor and distressed, you have failed to show that your activities actually relieve their poverty or distress. Your primary activity is simply to provide undocumented aliens with transportation out of the United States. You do not appear to be concerned with their welfare during their stay in the United States or with whether their situation upon return to their home country would be an improvement on their situation in the United States. You do not provide transition or employment assistance. You do not offer assistance in helping undocumented aliens reenter the United States legally.
The second “charitable class” you purport to serve are American workers. You claim that American workers “should … benefit from the repatriation of undocumented aliens who can affect the availability of scarce jobs in the United States.” But American workers are not poor or distressed per se. And even if particular American workers do suffer from poverty or distress, it is mere surmise that such workers would benefit from the repatriation of undocumented aliens. You have made no objective showing that undocumented aliens, particularly those who lack the resources to return home, are employed in jobs that are scarce or sought by United States citizens.
You do not claim to participate in any government program or to act on behalf of any governmental unit. We are not aware, and you have not shown, that the federal government has ever undertaken to provide transportation out of the United States to undocumented aliens who voluntarily choose to repatriate, or that a governmental unit has asked you to undertake such activities. You have neither established any concrete relationship with a governmental unit which might support a conclusion that you are acting on its behalf nor have you shown that the government has any control over your activities or that the government has provided for your support.
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