Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise: This year, more than half (55%) of Americans said they’d like to see immigration decline, a first since 2001. In June, President Joe Biden restricted the number of asylum seekers entering the country, and Republicans are promising the “largest mass deportation program in American history” if they win the White House this fall.
That stems in part from a belief that immigrants, particularly undocumented ones, are a drain on the government’s resources while contributing nothing. However, a new study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that the opposite is true. Undocumented immigrants actually contributed almost $100 billion in taxes during 2022, while not being able to use many of the programs their tax dollars funded.
Here are the key findings of the study:
- Undocumented immigrants are a large source of tax dollars: In 2022, they paid $96.7 billion, of which $60 billion went to the federal government. For each 1 million undocumented immigrants, federal services receive an additional $8.9 billion in tax revenue. More than a third of the taxes these immigrants pay go toward programs they cannot access, such as Social Security ($25.7 billion), Medicare ($6.4 billion), and unemployment insurance ($1.8 billion).
- Undocumented immigrants often pay higher tax rates than U.S. citizens: In 40 states, undocumented immigrants pay higher state and local taxes than the top 1% of households. They also cannot receive many tax credits, often don’t realize that they can claim refunds, and often don’t have access to tax help.
- Work authorization would be a win-win: Giving undocumented immigrants work authorization would result in an increase of their tax contributions from $40 billion to $137 billion per year since work authorization would increase wages.
“In total, the federal tax contribution of undocumented immigrants amounted to $59.4 billion in 2022, while the state and local tax contribution stood at $37.3 billion,” the study’s authors wrote. “These figures make clear that immigration policy choices have substantial implications for public revenue at all levels of government.”