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Friday, Jun. 20, 2025

Do undocumented immigrants in Colorado pay $400 million in taxes?

Por Jaijongkit, The Colorado Sun
yes

Colorado’s 170,000 undocumented immigrants paid $436.5 million dollars in state and local taxes in 2022. Nationwide, undocumented immigrants paid almost $97 billion in taxes. 

In Colorado, sales and property taxes make up the most of payments by undocumented immigrants. Due to ineligibility for tax credits and unclaimed refunds, undocumented immigrants pay higher local tax rates than the top 1% of households in 40 states, including Colorado. The analysis comes from study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning nonprofit think tank. 

Out of almost 48 million immigrants in the U.S., an estimated 11 million or 23% are undocumented, Pew Research Center research shows. 

Almost all unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. either entered the country without legal permission or overstayed a nonpermanent visa. Some unauthorized immigrants have legal protections, such as asylum applicants or those who cannot return to their home country due to violence or natural disasters. 

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