Taxes and Goverment Tools for Undocuemented Immigrants

According to FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a poll taken in March of this year showed that 66% of poll takers believe that the availability of government benefits attracts illegal aliens to the U.S., and only 19% disagree. The fact is, undocumented immigrants primarily come to the United States for better employment opportunities

• Young, working immigrants contribute significantly to the Social Security trust fund, providing a projected net benefit of almost $500 billion from 1998–2022.

• Eighty-five percent of eminent economists have concluded that undocumented immigrants have had a positive impact on our economy.

• National Resource Council data indicate that an average immigrant pays $1,800 in taxes a year to local, state, and federal government above what he or she “costs” in services or benefits received.

• Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants go out of their way to file annual federal and state income tax returns using a government issued Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

• Most unauthorized workers pay a higher effective tax rate than similarly situated documented immigrants or U.S. citizens.

• The Revenue Act of 1913 required non-U.S. citizens residing in the United States with or without documents to pay income tax in the same manner as U.S. citizens.

• Any undocumented immigrant required to file a U.S. tax return must obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for tax reporting and filing purposes.

• If the taxpayer uses her ITIN and attaches an invalid SSN to her W-2, the IRS will process the return under the ITIN.

• Immigration policies cause some of the poorest undocumented working families to pay a higher tax rate than other undocumented poor working families.

• Between 1996 and 2000, 90% of new job growth in 17 states was due to immigrants.

• Labor force participation is higher among undocumented men than among men who are legal immigrants or U.S. citizens.

Resources

FAIR- The Federation for American Immigration Reform

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/facts/polls_amnesty

NCSL-Immigrants in the Workforce: Some Fast Facts

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13120 August 2005

The Dispersal of Immigrants in the 1990s

http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410589_DispersalofImmigrants.pdf

Employed foreign-born and native-born persons 16 years and over by occupation and sex, 2009

annual averages

http://bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.t04.htm

The taxation of undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal

A project of CADENA -DREAM Act advocacy group

Research by Karen Coad, MASJHR candidate.

For more information contact Carmen Cornejo

(480) 324-6378

Download your fact sheet here