Paul Voiland’s Feb. 12 My Turn [“An immigration stoplight“] fed my interest in learning if, how and to what degree undocumented workers pay taxes. Asking the question online, several sites surfaced immediately, all stating unequivocally that the answer might be translated as, “Yes and how!” The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reports that, “Undocumented workers pay nearly $100 billion in taxes annually. In most areas they pay higher state and local tax rates than their wealthiest neighbors.”
The research further showed that these workers pay into programs that they’re barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022, from which they received zero benefits. This is taxation without representation, which in my recollection is outlawed under the U.S. Constitution.
So immigrants give even more to our nation than some of us knew. When immigrants are detained or deported we lose valuable community members, staffing for construction operations, care for our sick and elderly and youngest, as well as production of the food we eat in this Valley, to name just a few arenas. And at a time when our towns are struggling with budget cuts and school layoffs, we are deprived of a great deal in tax revenue paid to federal, state and local coffers. This strikes me as unwise, unkind and unaffordable in these lean times, a needless loss all the way around. We can do better.
Carrie Kline
Sunderland