Immigration Research Initiative: People Who Are Undocumented: Occupations, Taxes Paid, and Long-Term Economic Benefits

As a July 2024 report from the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows, people who are undocumented paid $97 billion in taxes in 2022. A total of $34 billion comes from payroll taxes to cover programs that exclude people who are undocumented from getting benefits: $25.6 billion paid to Social Security, $6.4 billion to Medicare, and, through contributions of their employers, $1.8 billion to unemployment insurance (which is a joint federal and state program). In other words, workers who are undocumented have wages withheld or employers are required to pay for programs that benefit other Americans, but which systematically leave them behind.²

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