Immigrants contribute to the economy, through taxes, just as much as American citizens. Society believes, immigrants don’t pay taxes, so all the money they make isn’t going back into our economy. Instead, only Americans have to pay taxes, and then immigrants benefit from these taxes, through programs like welfare and social security. False, that belief is a common misconception. Robert Reich, explains: Immigrants are a drain on public budgets. Bull. Immigrants pay taxes! The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report this year showing undocumented immigrants paid $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012 and their combined nationwide state and local tax contributions would increase by $2.2 billion under comprehensive immigration reform. (Reich)
As Reich said, immigrants do pay taxes. Not only do they pay taxes, but are also ineligible for many of the programs these taxes go to. Programs like welfare and social security only benefit Americans, yet immigrants still put money into these programs. Writer of the New York Times Walter Ewing, states, “All undocumented immigrants pay sales and property taxes, and—contrary to popular
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There are still neigh-sayers out there, who are in denial of these facts. Facts that show immigrants pay taxes into programs they don’t even benefit from. To those people, who claim immigrants take more than they give, haven’t heard of Henry Goodman. Henry Goodman, a well know journalist expresses that, “Over the past two decades, most efforts to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that, in aggregate and over the long term, tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants—both legal and unauthorized—exceed the cost of the services they use”(Goodman). Those are the facts, so it is tough to argue against them. Immigrants do contribute to the economy, sometimes tenfold, when it comes to