“Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes. They contribute more than they take.”
They pay some sales and payroll taxes — roughly $11.7 billion in state and local taxes per year. But the National Academy of Sciences found that each immigrant without a high school diploma costs taxpayers $115,000 more in benefits than they pay in taxes over their lifetime.
Key Talking Points
- 1Undocumented immigrants pay about $11.7B in state/local taxes — but that's not the full picture
- 2National Academy of Sciences: each immigrant without a high school diploma costs $115,000 net lifetime
- 3Total costs estimated at $150B annually vs. $19B in tax contributions
- 4The fiscal argument favors skills-based immigration like Canada and Australia use
The Full Response
It's true that undocumented immigrants pay some taxes, and that shouldn't be dismissed. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates they pay about $11.7 billion in state and local taxes annually, mostly through sales taxes and payroll taxes when using borrowed Social Security numbers.
But the full fiscal picture is much more complicated. The National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive study in 2017 finding that immigrants without a high school diploma — which describes the majority of illegal immigrants — represent a net fiscal cost of approximately $115,000 per person over their lifetime when you account for all government services consumed.
Those services include public education (approximately $12,000-16,000 per student per year), emergency room visits under EMTALA, Medicaid for emergency care and U.S.-born children, WIC and SNAP benefits for citizen children in mixed-status families, and local infrastructure costs. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that total federal, state, and local costs of illegal immigration exceed $150 billion annually, offset by about $19 billion in tax contributions.
The fiscal impact varies enormously based on education level. High-skilled legal immigrants are strong net contributors. Low-skilled immigrants, whether legal or illegal, tend to consume more in services than they contribute in taxes. This is simply because lower-income people use more government services and pay less in income taxes — the same is true for low-income native-born Americans.
This isn't a moral judgment about individual immigrants, who are often hardworking people trying to improve their lives. It's simply accounting. A country has to consider whether its immigration policy is fiscally sustainable, and a system that disproportionately attracts low-skilled workers creates fiscal challenges.
The solution is an immigration system that prioritizes skills, education, and economic contribution — like Canada's and Australia's systems that progressives often admire.
How to Say It
Acknowledge the taxes paid — don't deny the $11.7B figure. But then present the full cost picture. The National Academy of Sciences is nonpartisan and hard to dismiss. Frame it as accounting, not as an attack on immigrants as people.
Sources — The Receipts
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