More Misinformation from the Media:
President Trump’s tax returns remain a mystery, but the collective tax payments of the undocumented immigrants he loves to bash are not: They contribute an estimated $11.74 in state and local taxes. That’s an effective tax rate of 8 percent nationwide. By comparison the top one percenters pay an effective tax rate of 5 percent. . . . The Trump administration is hell-bent on implementing harsh policies to push undocumented workers further into the shadows, and ultimately wants them all deported. But that will come at a huge cost both to the economy—and the government’s offers. – Undocumented Immigrants Pay More Than Their Fair Share of Taxes, Editorial, The Boston Globe, 4/18/17 [Link]
Fact Check: The estimate of state and local taxes comes from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. A number of media outlets have cited this statistic. It may well be accurate, but it alone tells nothing about whether illegal aliens are genuinely contributing to our society. The true measure is whether or not they contribute more in taxes than they receive in public benefits.
An Internet link on the Globe’s editorial claims that “the contributions of these [illegal] workers absolutely outweighs their cost.” Nevertheless, a click on that link brings up an empty page. A reputable source on what illegal aliens are paying and taking is a study done in 2013 by the Heritage Foundation. This study notes that illegal aliens are low-wage earners. And like all low-wage earners, native-born as well as foreign-born, the total they pay in taxes is relatively small.
Thus the comparison of tax rates sheds no light on what illegal aliens are really contributing. They may pay at a higher rate than the top one percent, but the sum of what they pay is much less than that top bracket. The Heritage study tallied all the local, state, and federal taxes paid by illegal alien households, while adding up all the local, state, and federal benefits they receive. It found that these households on average pay $10,334 in taxes per year, and get $24,721 in benefits—a net liability of $14,387. In terms of total amount, they receive $54.5 more in services than the taxes they pay.
The media so often try to persuade Americans that we should ignore the wholesale violation of our immigration laws because of alleged advantages we gain from illegal immigration. A closer look usually shows that the liabilities outweigh the assets.