(This cartoon image is by Martin Sutovec in The Mercury News.)Americans have just finished paying their income taxes for last year, and this is the time you hear a lot of right-wingers whine about undocumented immigrants.
They would have you believe they come to this country and become a burden on American taxpayers -- sucking up benefits without paying for them. The truth is just the opposite. They don't qualify for those benefits, but pay billions of dollars to fund them.
Yes. Undocumented immigrants do pay taxes -- billions of dollars in taxes. Here is an estimate of the taxes they pay:
$23.6 billion in income taxes
$11.7 billion in state and local taxes
$9 billion in payroll taxes (Social Security/Medicare)
That's a total of about $44.3 billion in taxes. Kicking them out of the country wouldn't save tax money -- it would cost us tax revenues! And who do you think would have to make up those lost taxes? With the Republicans in power, it certainly would not be the rich or corporations. It would be ordinary Americans (including the foolish people who want to deport undocumented workers).
