Editor’s Note: The version of this story was first released in 2019.
CNN
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This is a surprising fact that is often overlooked in immigration debates.
Experts estimate that undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal taxes each year, between the tax returns filed and tax deductions, experts estimate.
This is why this happens.
National Immigration Law Center break down Many reasons Why unlicensed immigrants pay taxesinclude:
•This shows that they comply with federal tax laws.
•If they later have the opportunity to legitimize their immigration status, it can help them show “good moral character.”
• Tax return records can be used to record work history and presence in the United States, and if lawmakers pass immigration reform, they may help them qualify for legal immigration status.
Critics of illegal immigration have long believed that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are able to do so because they are using stolen Social Security numbers. But people who don’t have a Social Security number pay millions of dollars in taxes each year.
Instead, they use the so-called Personal taxpayer ID number (itin).
Bipartisan Policy Center is Washington’s think tank “Most experts believe that the vast majority of tax returns filed with ITIN today are filed by undocumented immigrants.”
Some non-citizens who legally immigrate to the United States also use this method to pay taxes.
In 2019, According to the IRSusing ITIN to file more than 2.5 million tax returns, accounting for nearly $6 billion in taxes.
In addition to tax returns, officials also estimate that undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars to social security each year through payroll tax relief. For example, in 2010, Social Security Bureau estimates Unauthorized workers’ payments account for about $12 billion in social security taxes.
In recent years, posts by immigration rights advocates on Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok during the tax season have attracted attention.
“Undocumented immigrants pay billions of taxes to fund programs they cannot access,” the National Center for Immigration Law Write In a series of recent social media posts.
In 2017, Belén Sisa’s post about her tax payment experience was all the rage.
“I want to tell me again how I should be deported and contribute nothing, only at the level of this country, where 1% of the richest people in this country steal from you every day?” Sisa wrote, an Arizona college student at the time.
The beneficiary of the Delayed Childhood Arrival Program later told CNN that she thought it was important to speak up.
“I want to show people that we are here, we are from all over the world and that we are doing more than people think,” she said.
Jose Antonio VargasPulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned his struggle as an undocumented immigration into an advocacy platform, sharing his experience from finalizing taxes in 2019. On Twitter.
“Yes, undocumented immigration is helping to fund detention and deport our system,” he wrote.
