I have a coworker who is vehemently anti-immigrant. One of the reasons she gives for this stance is that they come to this country unvaccinated and spread disease. Guess who is also anti-vax?
Brexit was the best experiment for that. They kick immigrants out so all jobs went to the local population. People didn’t want them, produce was left in the fields, deliveries were not made, tables were not waited on and some companies folded. Anyway, immigration is now back and higher than it used to be, but from other countries.
Wait, so they got rid of the Poles and other Eastern Europeans they loved to hate—who are they importing for labor now?
This one also surprises a lot of people: They pay taxes. Undocumented Immigrants in the USA paid about 11.6Bn USD in taxes in 2019 according to ITEP.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number
An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a Social Security number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Perhaps not income taxes, but maybe taxes on goods and services, property taxes, etc? Can’t say for certain though.
In my opinion the costs are much higher to not integrate new peoples. Undocumented Immigrants provide a lot of the ingredients but take none of the pie. I’m not going to sit here and say cheap labor is acceptable, but there is a point where you have to admit we wouldn’t have nearly as many workers in less desirable employment fields if not for immigrants, even if wages were higher. They are also on average younger than an aging local population.
Illegal immigrants actually pay into state and local taxes way more than legal citizens and green-card holders do.
And since they’re here undocumented, they can’t get anything in return for paying those taxes.
I looked up the numbers a while back but this 2017 study says at least 50%, meaning the majority pay taxes.
https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-state-local-tax-contributions-2017/
Also, note that only 59.9% of households pay taxes, which means legal status isn’t that important in terms of whether people pay taxes or not. They also won’t likely get any social security money either.
How does it work btw? Do you come to your country’s tax authority and say “hello, I’m here illegally, can I pay taxes” ?
You file your taxes under a special SSN that begins with a 9 that is given to you by the IRS specifically for filing.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/taxpayer-identification-numbers-tin#itin
And you’re not immediately arrested for, like, illegally working or potentially illegally crossing the border to begin with?
Or is it like taxing criminal activity, simply a loophole to make charging them easier?
I have SSI it pays peanuts, if I didn’t have a job ontop of it, I’d have nothing.
The rules are overly strict and an absolute poverty trap. I cannot legally have 2000 dollars to my name and anything I earn through ANY means must be reported meaning I CAN’T have a side hustle.
I need to stay on the program because my health insurance is tied to it, if I ever lost it I would be physically and mentally near death within a month.
I’m one of the people they’re talking about when they mention Welfare Queens
These are the situations I think it’s fine to fuck the government on. Do an all cash side hustle, keep the cash in a safe deposit box/in your mattress.
Though I suppose there’s the risk you get caught and fucked over by the legal system.
It’s a fucked up situation, and I feel for you. Hopefully things improve.
Only hope is for legislation to ease the rules a bit so that peopel on SSI can actually escape poverty, until then, it’s legally mandated that I live below the poverty line. It’s fucked
It’s a huge part of the culture of generational poverty as well. I used to work in Legal Aid and some of the schemes that folks used to milk the system to illegally (yet understandably) avoid the trap you’re talking about were absolutely brilliant. One couple used domestic protection orders to have a legal paper trail that the male couldn’t legally live with his partner (to avoid “household” income counting as your income). There was zero domestic abuse going on, but the women would lie, get her protection order, and have something to hand to the social service workers. Male partner would sneak in and out to avoid being too obvious that it was a sham. Absolutely brilliant, made it a shame that such smart fraudsters never had a life that gave them a vision and hope for something greater.
Whenever I see people talk about “If I could sit on my ass and get paid I would too!” I tell them the same thing -
Do it.
If you can scam your way into it, more power to you. First you’ll have to spend your savings down under $2k. If you have two cars, gotta sell one. If you take so much as a few hours of work a week your check is nixed like 75%. All for, even in 2023, like $800/mo.
If you think you can live your best life on $800/mo as the type of person who thinks someone getting 800/mo is the reason you can’t get ahead, I support you. 🤷