In a recent column, Jennifer Rubin took on the “big lie” of 2024, Trump’s insistence that “millions” of illegal immigrants vote in American elections. This assertion is manifestly untrue, and self-evidently an effort to lay the groundwork for another excuse for losing an election. As Rubin noted,
Undocumented immigrant voting has never been an actual problem. “On the heels of Trump’s first campaign for president in 2016, the Brennan Center for Justice examined about 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions, looking for evidence of the illegal voting by noncitizens that Trump had claimed was prevalent,” Axios reported. “It found about 30 suspected illegal votes.” Likewise, the libertarian Cato Institute debunked a bogus study in 2020 attempting to show that large number of undocumented immigrants voted.
The column reported on additional studies concluding that non-citizen voting (which has always been illegal) is vanishingly rare–and when it occurs, is usually due to a mistake rather than an improper motive.
American opposition to immigration isn’t simply racist/xenophobic–it is economically suicidal. Some years back, I did some research on the subject in preparation for a speech. Here’s some of what I found:
Immigrants make up about 14% of the U.S. population; more than 43 million people. Together with their children, they are about 27% of us. Of that number, approximately 11 million are undocumented. Individuals who fly in and overstay their visas outnumber those who cross the border.
Immigrants were 17% of the U.S. workforce in 2014; two-thirds of those were here legally. Collectively, they were 45% of domestic workers, 36% of manufacturing workers, and 33% of agricultural workers.
What about the repeated claims that immigrants are a drain on the economy? The data unequivocally shows otherwise. Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars into Social Security for benefits they will never receive. These are people working on faked social security cards; employers deduct the social security payments and send them to the government, but because the numbers aren’t connected to actual accounts, the worker cannot access their contributions. The Social Security system has grown increasingly—and dangerously–reliant on that revenue; in 2010, the system’s chief actuary estimated that undocumented immigrants contributed roughly 12 billion dollars to the program.
Approximately half of undocumented workers pay income taxes, but all of them pay sales and property taxes. In 2010, those state and local taxes amounted to approximately 10.6 billion dollars.
By far the most significant impact of immigration, however, has been on innovation and economic growth. The Partnership for a New American Economy issued a research report in 2010: key findings included the fact that more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Collectively, companies founded by immigrants and their children employ more than 10 million people worldwide; and the revenue they generate is greater than the GDP of every country in the world except the U.S., China and Japan.
The names of those companies are familiar to most of us: Intel, EBay, Google, Tesla, Apple, You Tube, Pay Pal, Yahoo, Nordstrom, Comcast, Proctor and Gamble, Elizabeth Arden, Huffington Post. A 2012 report found that immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business as native-born Americans. As of 2011, one in ten Americans was employed by an immigrant-run business.
I did my research several years ago. More recently, the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy has studied taxation of undocumented immigrants. Among their findings:
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Most of that amount, $59.4 billion, was paid to the federal government while the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments.,
For every 1 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the country, public services receive $8.9 billion in additional tax revenue.
More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.
At the state and local levels, slightly less than half (46 percent, or $15.1 billion) of the tax payments made by undocumented immigrants are through sales and excise taxes levied on their purchases. Most other payments are made through property taxes, such as those levied on homeowners and renters (31 percent, or $10.4 billion), or through personal and business income taxes (21 percent, or $7.0 billion).
Income tax payments by undocumented immigrants are affected by laws that require them to pay more than otherwise similarly situated U.S. citizens. Undocumented immigrants are often barred from receiving meaningful tax credits and sometimes do not claim refunds they are owed due to lack of awareness, concern about their immigration status, or insufficient access to tax preparation assistance.
None of this matters to the White Supremacists whose hatred of “those people” –and whose willingness to lie about them–outweighs the facts.
Asheville is our hometown. We are fortunate to be at our lakeshore residence in Canada. We have family in Asheville amidst a 1,000 year catastrophic event. Gas lighting trolls are still fomenting fear, conspiracy and panic while most citizens in Asheville are reaching out to others extending tangible offers of help and assistance. Power, water, internet remain elusive for thousands in a wide area. We will remember politicians who provided timely information with integrity during early stages of recovery. For the Governor of Tennessee who called for prayer instead of declaring an emergency … I remind him of John 17:21
Oooops. John 17:21 is a good one, but the Scripture I remind the Governor of Tennessee is James 2: 17-26 “faith without works is dead”.
A few weeks ago I saw an interview with a farmer in Florida. He said he didn’t know how he was supposed to bring in his crops without the migrant workers. The numbers of people who are willing to do those hard jobs are going down quickly.
The great replacement theory might just be the dumbest theory in our history. It seems that most immigrants don’t really have aspirations that are that low.
If you’re interested in getting insight into how immigrants think about their new home, I recommend the 1993 documentary “Road Scholar”. Andrei Codrescu, an immigrant from Russia, is responsible for it. It’s funny and worth a look.
Sheila, you left one company out of your list of firms founded by immigrants and their children: The Trump Organization. Oops.
Don’t forget, Trump himself assembled a committee to investigate the 2016 election results (that he won) because he thought millions of illegal immigrants helped Hillary win the popular vote. His internal committee found zero evidence.
I don’t even bother with debating people anymore about immigration when you consider we are all products of immigration to the US. The only natural-born North Americans are Cherokee, Apache, Comanche, Miami, Delaware, etc.
Elon Musk must post three times daily about this illegal immigrant voting lies with his millions of bots in tow. He is an immigrant from South Africa with over a dozen IVF kids from multiple women, yet he’s supporting Trump. SMDH
As for Norris’s post, Asheville is like my second home. It’s where I vacation a lot. The river along I-40 that we whitewater raft in the Summers wiped out much of the interstate. I’ve seen videos of completely wiped-out roads, bridges, and communities. I’m waiting to hear from friends there to see if we can help, but no word. I think they left the area. Even if we wanted to help, all the roads are closed in WNC. Helpers will have to come via airdrop.
What worries me most is that two more storm systems are heading along similar paths from the Gulf. I hope they spare the people of Florida and North Carolina, who’ve had enough this hurricane season. Governors of both those states are Republicans who don’t believe in climate change and want to disband FEMA. Let’s see how quickly they reach out for Federal assistance. 😉
Peggy, the “dumbest theory” in our history was concocted by the dumbest people too. No surprise: Racist Republicans.
The last line of the essay speaks volumes: The white supremacists ARE indeed the dumbest among us. Why do they get so much ink?
the trolls wife, the first w,,,,…
ive my working life was around immigrants,and especially from down south. the work ethic is off the charts in many aspects to padded ass whites. in the sun,try picking bent over like swinging a machet to cut lettuce and grees of the ground level in 110 degree sun. ya get the point on caucassion labor. they work cheap,only asking for a days pay and respect. they ask for little more. our society has become blind to where the grocery come from. dairy is big, it employs big. when you drive past a dairy, enjoy the smell. it goes along with what the magas send us every damn minute.
Facts do not matter to people who remain, insistently, in their Kool-Aid fueled ignorance bubbles!
Red politicians are following the same Trumpian strategy which is that they are entitled to win elections no matter the long term cost to others and by any and all means.
It’s a very old strategy. Bread and circuses. Promise the safe safest and most comfortable humans ever by telling them, first that they aren’t, and, second, that only you can make them so.
I have no doubt that Newsmax and Faux news daily lie to their viewers about immigrants.
https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/09/california-farmworkers-newsom-heat-bill/
Here’s a disturbing fact/trend. The contempt for migrants extends beyond repubs and includes Democrats.
DJT is such a deplorable weak human being, picking on and scapegoating the most vulnerable people among us. The turmoil/pain he’s caused to the people in this country will not be forgotten for a long time.
Ironic that a first-generation daughter of a brilliant immigrant from India is taking him on in the presidential election. Harris speaking truth to DJT’s toxic power is giving him a run for his freedom, which he could lose if he doesn’t prevail in the election.
Magas are scapegoating immigrants and setting their ground game to throw the election to the Republican House and/or the Supreme Court.
The elephant (so to speak) in the room is that without immigrant (documented and undocumented) and migrant labor, our economy would implode. Go to any restaurant and see who is cooking your food. See who is working in the factories. See who is working in the fields. This Wapo article is from 2013, but it makes a good point about the willingness (or lack thereof) of native-born Americans to take some of these jobs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/15/north-carolina-needed-6500-farm-workers-only-7-americans-stuck-it-out/