Dallas Morning News: “Here’s what immigrants contribute to your congressional district”

A new tool developed by New American Economy, a bipartisan research and advocacy organization supporting immigration policies that help grow the US economy, shows that immigrants are contributing billions of dollars in taxes and spending power to congressional districts across the United States. Andrew Lim, New American Economy’s director of quantitative research, said that he hopes that breaking down this data in this way makes it useful for representatives to understand their districts. “This is data that is tailored to their districts, which we know vary greatly from city and county boundaries,” Lim said.

New American Economy used American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau through 2017 and examined spending and voting power for immigrants and also examined other factors, including home ownership, taxes paid, and the number of immigrant entrepreneurs in each district. Anyone can easily use the tool to look up information on districts or on a state-wide level. In New York District 12, for example, where our firm is located, the tool shows that immigrants make up 26.5% of the population, have paid $4.6B in taxes, and have a spending power of $10.4 billion. Other states, including Texas, also boost high numbers as well. The tool shows that state-wide in Texas immigrants make up about 17% percent of the population, have paid about $35 billion in taxes, and have a spending power of $109.9 billion. “The idea is to show that immigrants at the most familiar level are making giant contributions,” Lim said. “This data tells the story of how immigrants are living and that the conversation around immigration isn’t an abstract but is relevant to our everyday lives.”

Inside Sources: “On Tax Day, Remember the Contributions of Unauthorized Immigrants”

Millions of Americans have filed their taxes in advance of the April 18 “Tax Day” deadline. And it’s not only US citizens paying taxes. Undocumented immigrants also make immense federal, state, and local tax contributions, as Tom Jawetz at the Center for American Progress points out. A recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) claims that undocumented immigrants pay an estimated yearly $11.64 billion in state and local taxes, adding significant amounts of money to state and local budgets. Tax contributions by undocumented immigrants also help to ensure the solvency of federal programs such as Social Security—the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration reported that in 2010 undocumented immigrants paid a net $12 billion in tax revenue into Social Security—even though many undocumented immigrants are unlikely to benefit from the programs themselves.

The study also claims providing a pathway for legal status in the US for undocumented workers would translate into even more tax revenue. ITEP’s analysis claims that combined state and local tax contributions of the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants would “increase by more than $800 million under full implementation of the administration’s 2012 and 2014 executive actions and by more than $2.1 billion under comprehensive immigration reform.” Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Tax Policy Director, said in a statement: “Regardless of the politically contentious nature of immigration reform, the data show undocumented immigrants greatly contribute to our nation’s economy, not just in labor but also with tax dollars. With immigration policy playing a key role in state and national debates and President Obama’s 2014 executive action facing review by the Supreme Court, accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is needed now more than ever.”

Texas, which sued the Obama administration over plans to expand the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) program, would reportedly see an additional $154 million yearly in new tax revenues each year if Obama’s executive actions were put in place. Moreover, the Joint Committee on Taxation found that blocking the deferred action initiatives would increase the size of the federal deficit by $7.5 billion over ten years. The Supreme Court will issue a ruling for Texas's lawsuit, United States v. Texas, this summer.