Nowhere To Go Fisher Addendum Analysis

The innocent spouse signed the return and did not know, and had no reason to know, that the understated tax existed

The author, Frosty Wooldridge, of The Children of Undocumented Immigrants, 2013 deplores Edwin Rubenstein of the National Research Center reported in 2008 that unlawful immigrants are having an astronomical negative effect in terms of $346 billion annually on the American taxpayers (par. 5). The author, Frosty Wooldridge, argues that the undocumented immigrants are wasting these taxpayers’ money. Also, the author underscores that these undocumented immigrants do not know how much it costs taxpayers every year for them to live here illegally. It may be true that the undocumented immigrants are not paying their taxes. However, the undocumented immigrants are spending money to help stimulate the economy. According to a website article, “DACA Recipients’ Economic and Educational Gains Continue to Grow” from the Center for American Progress website finds “The data illustrate that DACA recipients continue to make positive and significant contributions to the economy, including earning higher wages, which translates into higher tax revenue and economic growth that benefits all Americans. In addition, DACA recipients are buying cars, purchasing their first homes and even creating new businesses” (par. 3). The author establishes that the undocumented immigrants have been making the economy better by earning higher wages. Additionally, these undocumented immigrants are increasing the economy by acquiring essential things like cars and homes. The author implies that because of DACA, these undocumented immigrants, are in fact, benefiting the economy immensely with earning higher wages and purchasing homes and cars. Another powerful illustration of this point again specifying on the Center for American Progress website was concluding that important data is showing that many of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies are hiring DACA individuals accounting for $2.8 trillion annually

This documentary tries to bust myths about immigrations like: undocumented immigrant workers do not pay taxes, most immigrants are in the United States illegally and that immigrants take away jobs from Americans. It showed that these workers pay sale taxes, consumption taxes and property taxes at the state and federal levels. 20 million of the 31 million immigrants in the United States are legal and about 45% of them got into the county legally. American born workers dropped my 1.8 million between 2000 and 2005 crating a vacuum that was filled by these workers (Lloyd, 34).

Such as any other regular US citizen worker, the majority of undocumented immigrants pay taxes as required by the law. According to a study from the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy found that there are 11 million illegal immigrants that contribute roughly $12 billion dollars annually to the US government, including State and Federal taxes. According to the website Vox by Alexia Campbell, the government provides an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), created by the IRS in 1996 so people who aren’t allowed to work in the United States could still file taxes on any money they earned. The IRS showed that in 2010 about 3 million ITIN holders paid more than $870 million in income taxes. Out of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States there are children, mid age and the elderly. Some people argue that illegal immigrants are a burden to the US economy, but tax contributions’ statistics demonstrate

Furthermore, in 2014, immigrant-headed households—including those categorized as undocumented—in Texas contributed $20.4 billion in federal taxes, and $8.7 billion in state and local taxes (“Immigrants in

United States taxpayers pay approximately $113 billion a year for illegal immigrants and $84 billion of the cost is paid by state and local governments. The main cost to taxpayers is the education for the children of illegal aliens. The cost of education in children of illegal aliens is estimated about $52 billion and most costs are covered by state and local governments. Majority of illegal immigrants do not pay income taxes. The author suggests an approach to discourage upcoming illegal immigration is not to employ them and deportations. The author thinks policy makers are responsible to look for ways to cut the fiscal burden of illegal immigration. California’s budget deficit of $144 billion in 2010-2011 and is estimated that $21.8 billion

not only benefits the U.S., but it benefits the immigrants themselves. In continuation, Davidson states that over the years, “undocumented workers have contributed up to $300 billion, or nearly 10%, of the $2.7 trillion Social Security Trust Fund.” Just these numbers alone show how much immigrants are contributing to the U.S. To support this conclusion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concludes that immigrants contribute more in taxes and social contributions than they actually receive in benefits. (OECD 2014) In other findings by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), undocumented immigrants contribute in state and local taxes. ITEP estimates $11.74 billion are collect per year and, shockingly,

“Even illegal immigrants in New York illegally pay over 1 billion annually in taxes and only 16% of the total population are immigrants”. Also “immigrants pay about 424.7 million in state revenue” (Davidson). Lastly, “recent immigrants create a net surplus to the public sector of nearly $30 billion annually according to Urban Institute” (Haerens). Many people look at immigrants as people ruining America and only using all of America’s money.

nearly $29 billion at the federal level and $84 billion at the state and local

However, they might not have noticed how important illegal immigrants are in the American economy. Despite the fact illegal immigrants have no documents; they contribute billions of dollars to the Social Security Administration yearly and get nothing back when they retire (Porter 10). There is not an exact amount how much they contribute, however, researchers indicate that illegal immigrant contribute roughly around $ 7 billion to Social Security Administration (Porter 10). Illegal immigrants are classified as undocumented people in the United States, but that does not mean they do not help fund state and local taxes. They must file their taxes yearly. IRS enacted a system called, Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to track illegal immigrants who are employed. There is not an exact number that measures how many illegal immigrants pay taxes yearly, but many of them definitely pay their taxes for the IRS yearly which benefits the U.S. economy. (Lipman

In “Illegal Immigration Creates Large Fiscal Costs for US Taxpayers” by Robert Rector he analyzes this point. One of his points being that “In 2010, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes” This data is accurate but where are the government benefits going if legally non-citizens can’t receive government funds. Most likely the majority benefits are given to the American children of this illegal immigrants in the form of Medicaid and food stamps, and therefore benefit Americans. In Lynch’s argument he cancels this argument, “Over the 10-year period they would earn $392 billion more and pay an additional $109 billion in taxes,” now it’s billion they would contribute to the economy instead of taking money. Another argument is that with better jobs and a legal status immigrants would actually pay more taxes to the government. Many of them don’t currently do so because they have no social security card, hints why they only pay “$10,334” in taxes. On the other hand many do pay a lot on taxes and since they cant receive any benefits in reality they pay for many benefits they do not qualify for. If people oppose legalization because it would mean tax cost and instead support deportation one of the statements in Ann Garcia’s “The Facts Support Immigration Reform with a Path to Citizenship” could change their

Out of the 11plus millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., an estimated of 8.1 million are in the workforce. A study from the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP) found that undocumented immigrants in the U.S. contribute about $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012 and the effective rate for undocumented immigrants is about 8 percent nationwide. Their contributions could increase by 2.1 billion dollars under a compressive immigration reform. In Florida, for instance, there are currently 850,000 undocumented immigrants, they contribute $598,677,875 in state and local taxes which could be 59,865,125 more with a full reform impact.

Secondly, the local citizens have also expressed their thoughts that some of the illegal immigrant work in America and send the wages back home tax-free which leads to the negative sides of the country’s economy. In fact, it is cleared that there are no free things in this world and human needs food and drink to survive. Therefore, it is undoubtedly that the illegal immigrant has spent money in the states for one’s essential and sales tax has included in every single bill. This has shown that the money has not flow out from the country. Meanwhile, the illegal immigrant has never refuse to pay taxes but to work harder and get better wages, grab every single opportunity they can to live a better life. According to CBO forecasts, granting immigrant legal status would “reduce the federal deficit by $685 billion” (Rana Foroohar 24) and “U.S. would add $1.5 trillion to the economy over years”. ”(Rana Foroohar 24) Therefore, Americans can think that the higher wages the illegal immigrant workers earns, the more taxes they have to pay which translates into more tax revenue and increases consumer purchasing power which would certainly benefits the public treasury and the American economy as a whole.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported, roughly about 11 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States (Hoefer, Rytina & Baker, 2011). To legalize or not to legalize those undocumented immigrants has always been a major debate in the U.S. When weighing the pros and cons of a legalizing program, my stance is simple. Legalizing undocumented immigrants makes perfect sense, not only for the economy, but also a wonderful humanitarian act. Two economists Sherrie Kossoudji and Deborah Cobb-Clark (2002) examined the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Kossoudji and Cobb-Clark study found through the IRCA the men began earning an increased salary between 14 and 24 percent (2002). Their paycheck versus what we call “under the table”- also known as cash- would provide a tax revenue through federal and state government, along with an increase in consumer spending.

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, a third of all Americans state that the biggest worry about illegal immigrants is that they “used more public services than they pay for in taxes.” Anti-immigrant proponents, such a Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Dobbs and the “patriot” Mark Levin have done an excellent job confusing the public; making them believe that illegal immigration has a negative economic impact. When in fact the truth is the exact opposite, and all of them know it; yet they continue to obfuscate the truth and misdirect the public. Consider this: a surprising two-thirds of illegal immigrants pay Social Security, Medicare, and personal income taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration, undocumented immigrants pay many different types of taxes, including sales, property, social security, and individual income taxes. Even the most ignorant anti-immigrant radio or TV personality knows that the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified illegal immigrants from nearly all means-tested government programs including housing, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization assistance, and even food stamps. The only services that illegal immigrants can still get are K-12 education and emergency medical