FACT BRIEF

Do people living in the US illegally pay billions in Social Security taxes every year?

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

By Gus Fisher

YES

The Social Security Administration estimated that in 2010 3.1 million people living in the country without legal authorization contributed $13 billion to the system, while receiving only $1 billion in benefits. Its 2013 report forecast “a continuation of this positive impact on the trust funds.”

These figures reflected the taxed earnings of workers with expired temporary visas, fraudulent social security numbers or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, a number which non-citizens can obtain to make it easier to process taxes. The numbers are issued to non-citizens regardless of their legal status.

New American Economy, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, reports that people living in the U.S. illegally pay a total of $30.6 billion in state, local, and federal taxes every year.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Social Security Administration: Effects of unauthorized Immigration on the actuarial status of the Social Security Trust Funds

Internal Revenue Service: Immigration and Taxation (2014)

Bipartisan Policy Center: How do undocumented immigrants pay federal taxes? An explainer

New American Economy: Immigrants and the US economy

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.