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President Obama Leads Meeting on Immigration, But What Happens Next?
Yesterday, President Obama hosted a White House meeting with 70 national leaders—including Mayor Bloomberg, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Sharpton, evangelical leader Leith Anderson and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, among others—to discuss the challenge of fixing our broken immigration system. While some advocates praised President Obama’s renewed commitment to immigration reform—and the fact that the […]
Read MorePress Release: Partnership Members Attend White House Meeting to Talk Economics of Immigration
Today, President Barack Obama invited leaders from across the country to the White House to discuss immigration. Meeting attendees included leaders in business, law enforcement, labor and faith and current and former elected officials from both sides of the aisle. Partnership Co-Chairs Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Castro and Partnership members Gerard Arpey, CEO of American […]
Read MoreFiled Under “M” for “Myth Busted”: Unauthorized Immigrants Pay Taxes, Too
Sadly, myth and misinformation continue to be a major part of the immigration debate. One of the biggest myths perpetuated by restrictionist groups is that the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S. use a variety of public services yet paying nothing in taxes. Hard data recently released by the Institute for […]
Read MoreNew York Times Details the Unsavory Roots of FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA
Yesterday’s New York Times featured an in-depth story about a little-known but powerful man: John Tanton—a Michigan ophthalmologist and architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement. The story, entitled “The Anti-Immigration Crusader,” describes how Tanton’s activist ideology evolved over time, from an environmentalist’s color-blind concern with “over-population,” to a white nationalist’s worry over the growing number […]
Read MoreNew York Times Details the Unsavory Roots of FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA
Yesterday’s New York Times featured an in-depth story about a little-known but powerful man: John Tanton—a Michigan ophthalmologist and architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement. The story, entitled “The Anti-Immigration Crusader,” describes how Tanton’s activist ideology evolved over time, from an environmentalist’s color-blind concern with “over-population,” to a white nationalist’s worry over the growing number […]
Read MoreUnauthorized Immigrants Pay Taxes, Too
Estimates of the State and Local Taxes Paid by Unauthorized Immigrant Households
Tax Day is an appropriate time to underscore the often-overlooked fact that unauthorized immigrants pay taxes. The unauthorized, like everyone else in the United States, pay sales taxes. They also pay property taxes—even if they rent. At least half of unauthorized immigrants pay income taxes. Add this all up and it amounts to billions in revenue to state and local governments. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by households that are headed by unauthorized immigrants. These households may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Collectively, these households paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes. The states receiving the most tax revenue from households headed by unauthorized immigrants were California ($2.7 billion), Texas ($1.6 billion), Florida ($806.8 million), New York ($662.4 million), and Illinois ($499.2 million) {See Figure 1 and Table 1}. These figures should be kept in mind as politicians and commentators continue with the seemingly endless debate over what to do with unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States. In spite of the fact that they lack legal status, these immigrants—and their family members—are adding value to the U.S. economy; not only as taxpayers, but as workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs as well.
Get Out Your Wallets, Georgians! State Lawmakers Pass Costly Immigration Measure
Despite the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to uphold a preliminary injunction against provisions of Arizona’s SB 1070 earlier this week, state lawmakers in Georgia passed their own version of Arizona’s law (HB 87) last night, which allows police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and requires businesses to verify work eligibility […]
Read More22 Senators Demand President Obama Exercise Executive Action on Immigration
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is one of the letter’s 22 signators. As it becomes increasingly evident that Congress is too mired in politics to reform our broken immigration system, a steady chorus demanding executive action is growing. This week, 22 U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, sent a letter to President Obama asking him […]
Read MoreTwo Years Under the Obama Administration, How Does DHS Measure Up?
Nearly two years ago, expectations ran high as President Obama took office and Secretary Napolitano took the reins of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In review of DHS’s first year under the Obama Administration, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) found that while many promising changes were initiated, few were successful due to limiting political […]
Read MoreFederal Court Decision Protects H-1B Employees from Wrongful Arrest
Washington D.C. – A recent ruling from a federal judge in Connecticut confirmed that—as the American Immigration Council (AIC) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) argued in an amicus brief—the government may not arrest H-1B employees for whom timely-filed extension applications remain pending. The decision in El Badrawi v. United States, by U.S. District […]
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