Why We Shouldn’t Deport Undocumented Immigrants?

Brief commentary as taken from Tax Fairness. Good Stats and comparisons. And brief in making its point on immigrants as compared to corporations and income taxes.

“How Undocumented Immigrants Contribute to Our Economy & Pay Higher Tax Rates Than Many Major Corporations,” Americans For Tax Fairness

In 2022 America’s 10.9 million undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes. 

• That included $19.5 billion in federal income taxes and $32.3 billion in federal payroll taxes. 

• On a state and local level, undocumented immigrants contribute $37.3 billion in taxes, and in 40 of 50 states, they pay a higher effective state/local tax rate than the top 1% of households. The top 1% of highest-income households paid an average effective state/local tax of 7.2% in 2023, while the average undocumented immigrant paid a 10.1% effective tax rate to state/local governments.  

• It is estimated that $40 to $137 billion of additional revenue could be generated each year if these people were granted work authorization. This is because a less exploitable workforce would be paid higher wages (thus pay more taxes) and tax compliance by both employers and employees would increase. 

Undocumented Immigrants paid an effective federal income tax rate of 5.27% in 2022, which was higher than some of the wealthiest Americans and mega corporations. 

• According to ProPublica’s released tax data from the 400 highest-income individuals, undocumented immigrants paid a higher effective tax rate than five of the richest Americans.

• Undocumented immigrants also paid a higher effective tax rate than 55 mega corporations. Here is a list of the Fortune 500 corporations that paid less that same year. These corporations had a combined pre-tax income of nearly $200 billion but paid just $3.7 billion in federal income tax, 90% less than undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented Immigrants make significant contributions to our economy.

• Undocumented Immigrants make up around 5% of the total workforce but play even larger roles in key industries: 1-in-7 construction workers, 1-in-8 agriculture workers, and 1-in-14 hospital workers.

Deporting millions of undocumented workers would shrink the economy by $1.1 to $1.7 trillion, a more devastating contraction than what happened during the 2008 financial crisis. 

What Some Corporation Paid in Income Tax

What did Tesla pay in Federal Income Tax?