Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants.
Posted commentary by Daniel Becker on Facebook
“For those of you who think your taxes are paying for the undocumented immigrant. Actually, they are paying for you. How you say? Because they will never be able to receive the full benefits of the taxes they pay.”
“More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.”
1/3 rd. There’s another 2/3 rds to the local, state and other federal taxes. $96.7 billion.
“Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants,” ITEP
By definition, undocumented people should not have a Social Security Number in the first place, because they are NOT citizens. Moreover, every business who hires them is doing so illegally. So, why are they collecting taxes of any kind, as it appears to me as a ruse by businesses to hide illegitimacy; in other words, feigning legality. Please explain.
On the other hand, all those long lines in hospitals and clinics are being paid by someone; and it’s the taxpayers who are citizens. Again, please explain as there is more to this story than the article author is admitting.
@Frank,
The explanation is simple. Undocumented people give fake SS numbers. Since they will never collect payments, the contributions subsidize the SS system. And businessmen who hire undocumented workers know they won’t be punished for it. This has been going on for decades and everyone else knows it. If Republicans were serious about undocumented immigration, they would have ICE out there arresting business owners who hire undocumented workers and send them to Alligator Auschwitz to await trial. But they’d rather punish brown people, since the business owners are GOP donors.
Hope that helps.
Joel:
Most companies do ask for Social Security numbers as you imply in your second sentence. Companies also pay into Social Security and not doing so is problematic for the company if not doing so.
@Bill,
How many CEOs have gone to prison for paying into SS on behalf of undocumented workers?
Because CEO would be accused of discrimination if they doubted the fake SS undocumented workers are providing? Why should business owners be responsible for the fraud perpetrated by their employees?
@DS,
Because they are an accessory to an illegal act.
How is it discrimination to require your employees to show they are legally allowed to work? Why shouldn’t every employer be required to use E-Verify?
I have always thought that owners should be prosecuted. However, assuming that all of them are GOP is an immense stretch. Rationale: Obama era did not really take on business owners either; but Bush looked the other way as well.
Curious if with SS in particular, if the SSA truly understands and incorporates the impact of undocumented SS tax payments into their forecasts. For example, somehow an estimate of $25.7B taxes paid in 2022 by undocumented. These got paid under some identities. Are these identities generating future forecasted benefit claims or does the SSA know enough to zero them out? If these workers stay in the US until retirement age, I think it is conceptually possible to cheat them out of a return on the SS taxes they paid (but maybe not), but I’d say it will be really hard to keep them out of Medicare or other healthcare public funding mechanisms. If our principle retirement income and healthcare funding schemes are actively planning on robbing these workers we need to think again. Maybe the message needs to (partly) be ‘Guys, you need to get to work making Honduras great again, because here we are going to exploit you for as long as we can and then abandon you.’ If that’s the plan, let’s be upfront about it.
@Eric,
“If these workers stay in the US until retirement age, I think it is conceptually possible to cheat them out of a return on the SS taxes they paid (but maybe not), but I’d say it will be really hard to keep them out of Medicare or other healthcare public funding mechanisms.”
They *will* be cheated out of SS benefits because they used a fake number. No way to match the payments to the beneficiary. It would be similarly easy to keep them out of Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
I’m sure they know this. They’re not here for the retirement benefits, they’re here because there are jobs here. Like many American citizens, they’re not planning for retirement, they’re planning to work until they can’t anymore.
Undocumented is not the same a illegal immigrants.
Undocumented can pay taxes through ITINs: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) created the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to allow individuals, including undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for SSNs to pay taxes and file tax returns.
Many undocumented immigrants use ITINs to file income tax returns and claim the income reported on their W-2s to the IRS.
Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal, state, and local taxes, including sales taxes, property taxes, and income taxes.
@Brady,
Yes. Lots of critics forget that renters pay property taxes and everyone pays sales taxes.
Up to 75% of illegal/undocumented immigrants use fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers to get jobs.