Immigrant Tax Contributions and the Future of the U.S. Economy

When it comes to the topic of immigration, Tax Day is a reminder of two important and often-overlooked points. First, immigrants pay billions in taxes every year. This is true even of unauthorized immigrants. Second, the federal government spends billions of taxpayer dollars each year on immigration-enforcement measures that wouldn’t be necessary if not for the chronic inability of Congress to reform our badly outdated immigration system. In other words, there is a strong fiscal case to be made for immigration reform. Were the U.S. immigration system to be given a 21^st century overhaul, we would likely increase the tax dollars flowing from the immigrant community, and we would spend far less taxpayer money on immigration enforcement.

The taxes paid by unauthorized immigrants illustrate well the fact that everyone in the United States pays taxes, regardless of legal status. All unauthorized immigrants pay sales taxes. They also pay property taxes—even if they rent. And at least half of unauthorized immigrants pay income taxes as well. All of this amounts to billions in revenue to state and local governments. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by households that are headed by unauthorized immigrants (which may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants). Collectively, these households paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

The tax contributions of currently unauthorized immigrants would be greater were they provided with a pathway to legal status. A 2010 report from the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress found that the higher earning power of newly legalized workers would generate increased tax revenues of $4.5-$5.4 billion in the first three years following legalization. Because the federal government refuses to create a legalization program, it is missing out on this extra revenue. A 2010 study from the University of Southern California estimated that because unauthorized immigrants in California earn less than they would if they had legal status, the state government lost out on $310 million in income taxes in 2009, while the federal government missed out on $1.4 billion.

Rather than implementing reform, the U.S. government has chosen instead to pour ever-increasing sums into enforcement-only immigration policies. The budget of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) grew from $5.9 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003—when it was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—to $11.5 billion in FY 2011. The budget of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—the agency with DHS that is responsible for immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States—increased from $3.3 billion in FY 2003 to $5.7 billion in FY 2011. It costs roughly $166 per day for ICE to detain one person, and ICE spends $5.5 million per day to detain 33,400 people in over 250 facilities, according to estimates by the National Immigration Forum.

It is ironic that the federal government devotes so much money to apprehending and detaining unauthorized immigrants who add value to the U.S. economy with their labor, entrepreneurship, consumer purchasing power, and tax payments. While Border Patrol agents chase busboys through the desert, the native-born population is growing older. Roughly 77 million baby boomers will age into retirement over the next few decades, putting greater demands upon the cash-strapped Social Security and Medicare programs. Both of these programs need the tax dollars of new, younger workers—many of whom are, and will be, immigrants. As a result, we must not only create a pathway to legal status for those workers and taxpayers who are currently unauthorized. We also must fashion a flexible system of legal immigration which ensures we receive the immigrant workers and taxpayers our economy needs in the future.

It’s a shame that so many of the lawmakers who create our immigration policies can’t recognize this fact.

by Walter Ewing Immigration Impact

Photo by DavidReber

Republican Senator Dick Lugar Gains Momentum in Indiana

From Lugar Campaign office:

Signs of Lugar Momentum Lugar volunteers, like one team in Wayne County pictured here, were among hundreds fanning out across Indiana this weekend erecting 30,000 yard signs and building momentum for Sen. Dick Lugar’s re-election.

INDIANAPOLIS (April 16, 2012)
The Friends of Dick Lugar campaign this weekend delivered 30,000 yard signs across Indiana in a demonstration of the vibrancy of the Lugar volunteer organization and growing momentum toward victory on May 8th.  Senator Dick Lugar greeted volunteers and thanked them for their support before sending them off to deliver signs.

“Our campaign momentum grows stronger each day,” Senator Lugar said.  “I am humbled by the outpouring of energy and enthusiasm of volunteers from across Indiana.  Hoosiers want a thoughtful conservative they can trust in the U.S. Senate and we will deliver a strong victory for Indiana Republicans on May 8th.”

‘Illegals’ need GOP support!

The Vatican keeping watchful eye in Nebraska regarding LB599

The Catholic Church has been a strong advocate for pro life and immigrants.  They have the RIGHT idea on true compassionate beliefs.  We are glad they are keeping a watchful eye in Nebraska with regard to the prenatal care bill LB599.  We hope they will step in the Indiana United States Senate race and influence Catholics in the Hoosier State by promoting Senator Lugar there.

We believe there will be a rise in Catholicism due to their strong advocacy in the pro life issue and the immigrant issue.  John Tanton is the anti-immigrant and anti-pro life crusader that was instrumental in hijacking the Republican Party via FAIR, Numbers USA etc.

Tanton was the organizer and President of the Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood Association between 1965-1971, and in 1975 he wrote The Case for Passive Eugenics where his letters and memos are a public collection at the Bentley Historical Library.  (1) Tanton has clear connections to Pioneer Fund and Numbers USA where  Pioneer Fund’s eugenic ideas (selective breeding of humans)  supported a variety of institutions that legitimize race “science”, including the journal Mankind Quarterly, which today is published by long-time eugenicist, anti-Semite and Pioneer grant recipient Roger Pearson. (2) According to the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley states that by Dr. Tanton’s own reckoning, FAIR has received more than $1.5 million from the Pioneer Fund, a white-supremacist outfit devoted to racial purity through eugenics. Board members of FAIR actively promote the sterilization of Third World women for the purposes of reducing U.S. immigration prospects. And if anything disturbs the good doctor more than those Latin American hordes crossing the Rio Grande, it’s the likelihood that most of them are Catholic, or so he once told a Reuters reporter. (3)  As the founder and publisher of Social Contract Press, Tanton has published books that have helped shaped a nationalist ideology focused on the threat of immigrants to the white…while ignoring research that points to the positive contributions of immigrants. (4)

 

We are glad to see the Vatican keep a watchful eye on prenatal care offered to ALL WOMEN because ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.   See their below visit to SOMOS REPUBLICANS.

Supporters of Newt Gingrich Video on the Last Reagan Conservative Standing

Newt Gingrich supporters sent in videos on why they support his campaign.

Largest Latino Republican Group Applauds Right to Life

Official Statement

Largest Latino Republican Group Applauds Right to Life

For Immediate Release

11 April 2012

Pueblo, CO –  SOMOS REPUBLICANS would like to thank the Nebraska Right to Life for taking a leadership role in a national movement to protect the unborn and providing prenatal coverage to all women who choose to keep their babies.  We look forward to seeing other Right to Life groups follow suit with this important issue.

Related:

Right-to-life group sends letter to senators on prenatal bill.

About Somos Republicans:

Somos Republicans is a national watchdog group and the largest Hispanic Republican grassroots organization in the nation because of our leadership that is pro immigration reform. The Mission of Somos Republicans is to promote political education and information needed to make more informed political decisions. To inspire the Hispanic people to make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors through collaborative political education, volunteer commitment and responsible participation in society.

The U.S. cannot overlook our border neighbor — Mexico. A rising economic giant.

We have always promoted a strong North American continent and here is another reason why.

Because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, 85 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the United States, even as half of Central America’s trade is with the United States. While the median age of Americans is nearly 37, demonstrating the aging tendency of the U.S. population, the median age in Mexico is 25, and in Central America it is much lower (20 in Guatemala and Honduras, for example). In part because of young workers moving northward, the destiny of the United States could be north-south, rather than the east-west, sea-to-shining-sea of continental and patriotic myth. (This will be amplified by the scheduled 2014 widening of the Panama Canal, which will open the Greater Caribbean Basin to megaships from East Asia, leading to the further development of Gulf of Mexico port cities in the United States, from Texas to Florida.)

Since 1940, Mexico’s population has increased more than five-fold. Between 1970 and 1995 it nearly doubled. Between 1985 and 2000 it rose by more than a third. Mexico’s population is now more than a third that of the United States and growing at a faster rate. And it is northern Mexico that is crucial.

…..Mexico, in addition to the obvious challenge of China as a rising great power, will help write the American story in the 21st century. Mexico will partly determine what kind of society America will become, and what exactly will be its demographic and geographic character, especially in the Southwest.

Read more: With the Focus on Syria, Mexico Burns, by Robert D. Kaplan | Stratfor

Hire only the best for Sheriff of Maricopa County Office — Mike Stauffer

You Can’t Be Pro-Life and Anti-Immigrant

You Can’t Be Pro-Life and Anti-Immigrant

“Hispanics love to say Mi casa es tu casa (“My house is your house”) because togetherness and community are valued in their culture. My dream is that, some day, all Americans will learn to say that phrase—and mean it.”

Santorum: If Romney’s the Nominee, ‘We Might as Well Stay With’ Obama

Romney Care is the same as Obama Care.

 

Santorum: If Romney’s the Nominee, ‘We Might as Well Stay With’ Obama

By Katrina Trinko

March 22, 2012 5:07 P.M.

Next Page »