Illegal immigrants thrive at expense of taxpayers

I can really relate to Dr. Nelson's article: "Whose university is it anyway?" (Feb. 8) as my Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Anatomy with concentrations in Protein and Amino Acid Biochemistry, Neurobiology and Endocrinology has yielded the same result. However, I think it is important to note: while immigrants, legal and illegal, don't get paid as much up front, they also don't have to contribute as much in taxes as US citizens. All they have to do is declare on line 51 on their IRS form 1040 (http://www.irs.gov/app/scripts/retriever.jsp) that the full amount owed to the US government was paid to their country of origin to take it as a "Foreign tax credit." IRS auditors don't have the wherewithal to check on taxes paid to foreign governments. Since most state taxes are based upon the federal taxes, foreigners also can contribute far less in state taxes than US citizens. Thus, while they may be paid 20 percent less, their take home salaries are about 30 percent more...all at the expense of US taxpayers.