The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a new study Tuesday showing the massive tax contributions of undocumented immigrants, which said undocumented New Yorkers pay more than $3 billion in taxes.
The in-depth study analyzed the tax contributions – including paying sales, excise, property, income and payroll taxes – of the 10.9 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the Unites States in 2022, according to a news release.
Undocumented immigrant New Yorkers pay $3.1 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, the report said.
There are 676,000 undocumented immigrants working in and contributing to New York State’s economy. More than half (55%) of undocumented immigrant New Yorkers have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years and despite paying into Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, they are not able to access those benefits.
If work authorization was granted to the entire population working in New York State, their wages would increase and barriers to complying with tax laws would lessen. This would increase the annual tax contributions by $850.8 million, to a total of $3.9 billion, according to the press release.
Undocumented immigrants make up 4.7% of the workforce, despite making up only 3.4% of the total American population. Nationally, undocumented immigrants pay $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. This amounts to $8,889 in annual tax contributions per person.
The annual tax contributions of undocumented immigrants surpass the total combined state budgets of Delaware, South Dakota, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, Maine, Oklahoma, Alaska, Iowa, Wyoming, Nebraska and Rhode Island, the report found.
