Albuquerque Tribune
May 30, 2006

A taxing situation
Undocumented immigrants contribute more to economy than hard work
by Gerry Bradley

Within the debate over undocumented immigrants much has been said about the alleged costs to the American taxpayer. Few people, apparently, realize that federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving government benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, and the like. Meanwhile, very little has been said about the contributions undocumented workers make in support of our economy and collective lifestyles. Certainly, it has been pointed out that such workers provide Americans with low-cost goods and services. But very little has been said about the contributions they make to our cities, states and federal government by way of the taxes they pay.

Everyone who comes to America - whether they have the official paperwork or not - pays certain taxes. Tourists buying gas for their rental cars or souvenirs for their friends cannot avoid paying the associated taxes. Those who choose to live and work here pay these and other taxes, whether it's the property taxes the landlord embeds within their rental fees or income taxes deducted by employers from their paychecks. That the Social Security Administration collects $7 billion annually, paid under invalid or unmatchable Social Security numbers, is proof enough that income taxes are collected from many thousands of undocumented workers. It is money that undocumented workers will not likely get back in the form of tax refunds, Medicare or Social Security.

The emphasis here, however, is on the taxes that land in New Mexico's state coffers. It is possible to estimate the amount of taxes undocumented immigrants pay the state by using population estimates and the same methodology that's used to calculate the taxes you and I pay.

New Mexico Voices for Children did just that and the result is our new report, "Undocumented Immigrants in New Mexico: State Tax Contributions and Fiscal Concerns." We also estimated how much we spend on the undocumented children who are in our public school system. Our findings, in a nutshell, indicate that undocumented immigrants who have resided in the U.S. for fewer than 10 years contribute more to the state in taxes than undocumented children cost the state in educational expenditures. A lot more - from $1.3 million to nearly $2 million a year. Not a bad surplus from people who are not supposed to be here.

We reached this conclusion using a variety of sources for data and methodology. We used population estimates from both the Immigration and Naturalization Service (what is now U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the Pew Hispanic Center, as well as per-pupil cost estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. We used methodology from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy to estimate tax payments. The entire study is available on our website, www.nmvoices.org, for those who want to see all the actual numbers.

While this report makes a compelling argument for the pro-immigration side of the debate, it's worth pointing out that the discussion has been largely punctuated with numbers. That's a sad statement considering we are talking about people. And for the most part, we're talking about law-abiding, hard-working people who only want the opportunity to feed and clothe their families by the labor of their own hands. It has been suggested that we call them 'economic refugees,' and it is a far more appropriate term than those commonly used. For these are people fleeing weak, unstable economies and oppressive governments that look the other way. For that matter, our government - and by extension ourselves - look the other way. What's worse, our foreign and trade policies enable and even support dictatorial regimes and economic disaster for many of our southern neighbors. We are quite directly to blame for our immigration "problem."

We are all in favor of allowing goods and capital to flow freely across our borders - as long as there is profit in it for us. When it comes to people, we are primarily concerned with the costs. And that makes us, in a very real sense, a terribly poor country.

Gerry Bradley is an economist and Research Director for New Mexico Voices for Children.