Facts are always preferable to inaccurate perceptions. The following is worth reading.
Immigration and Undocumented Workers, Part 2: Greenspan Says Workers "Donate" Billions of Dollars, Yearly
According to claims of many who oppose “illegal aliens,” and allegedly the main reason that many state they are against undocumented workers, is because of the drain on the “American taxpayer.” Discounting the fact that Mexicans live on the American continent as well, ethnocentric and racist thinking is inherent in the thinking process borne out in such remarks, made without evidence to support it. According to information, articles and studies spanning the past six years the undocumented, immigrant worker has more than paid for the services that he or she or their family members use.
The biggest complaint seems to be that undocumented workers don’t pay taxes. How would one pay their taxes if it weren’t taken out in payroll? If payroll taxes aren’t being paid the main one to blame is the employer not taking out those taxes. If this is the true problem it can be controlled with harsher penalities for those businesses who consistently refuse to apply the proper taxes. If the reason they are hiring illegally is for the monetary gain and that is taken away from them, they quit hiring. If there are no jobs, illegal immigrants will not come for jobs that do not exist.
However, statistics indicate that, overall, payroll taxes are being paid. There is not a problem with taxes not being paid, overwhelmingly, quite the opposite in fact.
Less than .5 percent of the U.S. population is undocumented, according to the U.S. Census. The percentage of the population that is foreign-born is half what it was at the turn of the century. Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for almost all public benefits, including unemployment and Social Security, even though they are required to pay into these programs through payroll taxes. According to the Urban Institute, only about one quarter of immigrants are undocumented; most of those do not sneak across the border, but instead enter legally and stay after their visas expire—and only one-third of them come from Mexico
According to Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Board Chairman, in his 2001 congressional testimony, “undocumented workers contribute more than their fair share to our great country”. These undocumented workers in essence donated, Greenspan informed 2001 Congress, $27 billion to state and local economies, the difference between what they paid in taxes ($70 billion) and what they use in services ($43 billion). Greenspan also testified that in Illinois alone “Illegal workers pay $547 million in taxes yearly, compared to $238 million in services used.” This is a net “profit” for Illinois of $309 million.
A February 2002 study by the University of Illinois found that even as undocumented workers paid federal and state income taxes (one study puts the amount of taxes paid at $90 billion per year) they did not claim the tax refunds for which they were eligible. These unclaimed refunds amount to the donation of billions of dollars to the public coffers.
Another study by the Urban Institute found that undocumented workers contribute 2.7 billion to Social Security and another $168 million to unemployment insurance taxes. Because of their illegal status, these workers will not be able to access these programs even if they wanted to. In addition to the above tax donations, undocumented workers pay billions of dollars in local and state sales taxes when they purchase appliances, furniture, clothes and other goods.
A UCLA study found that undocumented workers contribute approximately 7 percent of California’s $900 billion gross economic product, or $63 billion. The contribution by each undocumented immigrant is therefore about $45,000, counting even children, the unemployed, and those too old or ill to work. Almost all undocumented workers receive wages near, and sometimes below, the legal minimum, which at $5.75 per hour equals an annual income of $11,960.
Any increase in undocumented immigrants in the last 20 years, according to Policy Analyst Walter Ewing in his March 2002 study the 2000 Census, was due not to an actual increase in immigration, but to greater efforts during the 2000 Census to reach undercounted minority groups missed during the 1990 Census. It was revealed that the number of undocumented immigrants in the United State stood at about 8.7 million, an increase of nearly 5 million since 1990. He also cited a 2001 study by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies that estimated of the nations 19.1 million foreign-born workers comprised 12.8 percent of the total U.S. labor force in 1999 and 2000.
In addition, The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2001 there were 14.7 million Hispanic workers in the United States, including 9.6 million of Mexican origin, spanning all occupational categories. According to a November 26, 2001, story in Fortune Magazine, the “nation’s 27.6 million legal immigrants produced an estimated 10% of U.S. GDP {Gross Domestic Product}” in 2000, while undocumented immigrants made all additional contribution of more than $200 billion.
In August 2001 North American Integration and Development Center (NAID) produced a study estimating that undocumented immigrants from Mexico contributed $154 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2000, based on the fact that $77 billion went to the Gross State Product of California alone, and then estimating the presence of 3 million undocumented Mexican immigrants nationwide. NAID was created to conduct ongoing research concerning North American integration and to assist communities and governments with policies and investment projects for sustainable and equitable development across borders.
According to Jeffrey S. Passel, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center, analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey shows that there were 11.1 million unauthorized migrants in the United States a year ago. Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006. Of those 11.1 million About 7.2 million unauthorized migrants were employed in March 2005, accounting for about 4.9% of the civilian labor force. They made up a large share of all workers in a few more detailed occupational categories, including 24% of all workers employed in farming occupations, 17% in cleaning, 14% in construction and 12% in food preparation. That makes 7.2 million immigrants from Mexico contributing in well over $154 billion dollars to the GDP in 2005. This would be lost if the borders were completely sealed, the undocumented immigrants rounded-up and sent back to Mexico.
In addition, undocumented immigrants also contribute billions of dollars in income, property and sales taxes, although it is difficult to quantify the amount. A January 2001 report by the Social Security Administration concluded that undocumented immigrants “account for a major portion” of the more than $20 billion paid to Social Security between 1990 and 1998 that payees can never draw upon because the payments took place under names or Social Security numbers that don’t match the agency’s records. Such payments totaled almost $4 billion in 1998. The Urban Institute calculated that in 1995 undocumented immigrants in New York alone contributed over $1.1 billion in taxes.
In the March 2005 estimate two-thirds (66%) of the unauthorized 11.1 million population had been in the country for ten years or less, and the largest share, 40% of the total or 4.4 million people had been in the country five years or less. There were 5.4 million adult males in the unauthorized population in 2005, accounting for 49% of the total. There were 3.9 million adult females accounting for 35% of the population. There were 1.8 million children who were unauthorized, 16% of the total. In addition, there were 3.1 million children who are U.S. citizens by birth living in families in which the head of the family or a spouse was unauthorized.
United States taxpayers, especially with the financial chaos that is Social Security, need to closely examine the costs of loosing the resources of 7.2 million contributing employees, whose W-2s will fall silent, revenue will sharply decline on state and federal levels, Social Security’s finacial woes will be immediately felt by all on it. The walk out one week ago, to show in one small way the economic power of this group of people, is nothing compared to what will truly happen if they are forced from our borders.
