Undocumented Immigrants Are Well Documented. Just Ask the IRS.
The system encourages those coming to America seeking a better life to participate in society to the fullest extent possible. And they do — by paying lots of taxes.
Yes, they pay taxes.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The phrase “undocumented immigrant” is deeply misleading, if not outright inaccurate. It implies that there is a mass of people in the US that essentially live off the grid, apart from society, existing only in informal economies and off-the-book transactions. In fact, immigrants who lack permission to be in the US are enmeshed in society with plenty of formal and official documents to their name, from tax returns to mortgages.
No, immigrants haven’t figured out how to circumvent the rules. The reality is that the system encourages people coming to America seeking a better life to participate in society to the fullest extent possible, which is in the country’s best economic interests even if they don’t have permission to be here. And that means paying taxes – lots of them. That Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated in July that this group paid almost $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes alone in 2022.