$97 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022

@LordShadowfire

Yeah, Shady, "evidence" from such unbiased sources as the Southern Poverty Law Center. 🤣 🤣 🤣


https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map/

Hmm... lotta "hate" in the Northeast Corridor, isn't there? Tsk, tsk...

@Thinkerbell

@Thinkerbell The argument that they don't contribute to the economy is misleading.

First, undocumented workers do, in fact, contribute significantly to the economy, even if they are "off the books." Studies show that a large percentage of undocumented immigrants pay taxes through payroll taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes.

They often contribute more than they receive in benefits, including Social Security and Medicare, even though they cannot directly access these benefits.

@Thinkerbell net annual cost actually means after you take out what they pay in other taxes so that would mean the gross cost would be almost 250 billion.

@SatanBurger


"Off the books" means the illegals are paid in cash, and NO record is kept (except of course secret records by the people who employ them). In particular, NO payroll tax is collected and NO W2 form is sent to the IRS.

Yes, if they buy items in a regular store, then they do pay sales tax.
As for property tax, yes, that comes out of the rent they pay, but if 20 illegals are put up it a 1-family house, the contribution is minimal.

@TexChik Maga lies constantly that's why you fall for sites with failed fact checks, liars like sites that tell them the lies they want to hear.

I use mediabiasfactcheck site which is pretty fair regarding both right and left platforms

@SatanBurger So sayeth the lib.. No one needed fact-checkers till libs started lying about everything and needed protection from being exposed. Now they are all exposed, which is why their approval rating is at a 50-year low. Guess what? Trump won, and there is nothing you libs can do now except make sure we sweep up in the midterms, and so far, you are doing a great job.

@dale74 Source?

@LordShadowfire https://www.newsweek.com/illegal-immigration-costs-us-billions-biden-administration-policy-impact-taxpayer-burden-1866555

@dale74 It's important to note that FAIR is known for advocating stricter immigration controls, and its findings have been met with skepticism from other researchers and organizations. For instance, the Cato Institute has criticized FAIR's methodology, suggesting that correcting certain errors reduces the estimated fiscal cost of illegal immigration from $116 billion to between $3.3 and $15.6 billion

Here is FAIR from the mediabiasfactcheck site:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-federation-for-american-immigration-reform-fair/

A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.

Overall, we rate FAIR Questionable based on Extreme Right-Wing Bias as it relates to immigration, promotion of propaganda and conspiracies, as well as having connections to documented Hate Groups.

Analysis / Bias

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center “The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a group with one mission: to severely limit immigration into the United States. Although FAIR maintains a veneer of legitimacy that has allowed its principles to testify in Congress and lobby the federal government, this veneer hides much ugliness. Further, FAIR has ties to white supremacist groups.

In review, FAIR publishes articles and research that is currently Pro-Trump, such as this: Trump Administration Immigration Accomplishments. They also routinely denigrate immigrants as criminals or dangerous for America such as these: Examples of Serious Crimes By Illegal Aliens and conspiracies such as Could Uncontrolled Immigration Expose Us to a Public Health Crisis? This latter article is sourced to a wide range of Questionable far-right sources such as Breitbart, Gatestone Institute, and Judicial Watch.

According to the right-leaning Cato Institute, FAIR has published questionable research that is “fatally flawed.” Cato reports: “Its recent report, ‘The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (2017)’ by Matthew O’Brien, Spencer Raley, and Jack Martin, estimates that the net fiscal costs of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is $116 billion. FAIR’s report reaches that conclusion by vastly overstating the costs of illegal immigration, undercounting the tax revenue they generate, inflating the number of illegal immigrants, counting millions of U.S. citizens as illegal immigrants, and by concocting a method of estimating the financial costs that are rejected by all economists who work on this subject.

Failed Fact Checks

A factual search reveals a poor track record with fact-checkers.

Overall, we rate FAIR Questionable based on Extreme Right-Wing Bias as it relates to immigration, promotion of propaganda and conspiracies, as well as having connections to documented Hate Groups. (9/7/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 01/03/2025)