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Immigration to the United States has been in the spotlight for some time. Many voters say it is their top concern this year.
America’s immigration laws and practices clearly need improvement. Some members of Congress have tried to strengthen immigration laws in a sensible way, but in at least one prominent recent example they’ve been stymied by Republican politicians who seem more intent on campaigning on border issues than on fixing them.
With so much focus on immigration, there is unfortunately much false information being shared about immigrants and their impact on the U.S.
One common misperception is that immigrants are a drain on the economy. A recent national report adds new information to debunk such arguments.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. More than half went to the federal government.
More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these undocumented immigrants are barred from accessing. For example, 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, according to the institute’s report.
In Maine, undocumented immigrants paid more than $15.6 million in state and local taxes in 2022. Thirty-eight percent came through property taxes, 31 percent through sales and excise taxes and 28 percent was from personal or business income taxes.
According to the report, most of the nation’s nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants have been here for an average of 16 years.
The report did not take into consideration government costs associated with immigration in general, such as border enforcement and immigration adjudication and temporarily housing asylum seekers, which has been an increasing challenge for many communities, including Portland.
More broadly, all immigrants to the U.S. — not just the 11 million undocumented immigrants included in the study — contribute nearly $1 trillion a year in federal, state and local taxes, according to the Cato Institute. That’s $300 billion more than they receive in benefits, which includes cash assistance, entitlements and public education.
Last year, David Bier, the associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the benefits of immigration.
In addition to these financial contributions, immigrants fill important workforce gaps. New Americans are also helping to stem the population decline in the U.S., Bier said. This decline has huge implications for employers and programs such as Social Security and Medicare, which need more people to pay in to support the growing number of retirees who receive these benefits.
“New people are not threats to suppress but assets to celebrate,” Bier said. “We need people to transform natural resources into human resources, and in a free country, people seek to do just that. Immigrants are no different. Immigrants are workers, inventors, investors, and entrepreneurs.”
Another frequent and damaging — and factually incorrect — complaint against immigrants is that they are responsible for a rise in crime. A false claim that an undocumented immigrant attacked and killed children at a dance class in England set off days of rioting.
The attacker, who stabbed and killed three children and wounded eight others, was born and raised in England. Still anti-immigration protesters, fueled by the false information, took to the streets in several cities in England and Northern Ireland. Some far-right protesters set fire to hotels hosting asylum seekers.
Extensive research has found no link between immigration and crime rates. Immigrants, like native-born Americans, commit crimes. However, numerous studies have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at higher rates than native-born Americans.
America has long been a nation of immigrants. Unless you are an Indigenous American, you or your ancestors came here from somewhere else.
Instead of demeaning immigrants, no matter how they got here, we should see the value, which goes well beyond economics, that they bring to the U.S.
That is not to say that our border security doesn’t need to be improved or our immigration laws updated and strengthened. But demeaning immigrants is counterproductive and dangerous.
