Classic Catch-22

Re “Judge halts tax crackdown on migrants,” Dec. 13

This article inadvertently highlights the absurdity of our immigration system.

One of the biggest complaints among those opposed to providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is that they use public services without paying for them through taxes. In a classic Catch-22, undocumented individuals who attempt to pay their fair share by applying for a taxpayer ID number -- issued by the IRS, as your article points out -- are subject to investigation and arrest in Weld County, Colo. The sheriff and the district attorney must have been acting on this bit from Joseph Heller’s classic: “Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating.”

Liz Fautsch

Encinitas