Posted on 02/25/2017 3:14:01 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As President Donald Trump prepares to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally, a new national study shows undocumented workers pump billions of dollars into Connecticut’s economy each year.
The New American Economy, a coalition of mayors and business leaders who support “sensible” immigration reform, found that the nearly 130,000 undocumented Connecticut residents pay $397 million in annual federal, state and local taxes, account for $3.1 billion in household income and represent $2.7 billion in spending power.
“This research proves what we’ve known for years: Immigrants are a boom to our local economy and in every community in America,” said Lucas Codognolla, an undocumented Stamford resident and executive director of CT Students for a Dream.
The new immigration policies announced last week could potentially result in deporting 11.4 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.. The Trump administration has stopped short of targeting more than 700,000 people who entered the country as children and are protected by immigration orders issued by former President Barrack Obama.
Opponents of Trump’s policies say the new rules are draconian, and the New American study bolsters arguments that peaceful, law-abiding undocumented immigrants provide value to American society and should not be deported.
“I have clients who have been here a decade,” said Alicia Kinsman, managing attorney for the International Institute of Connecticut in Bridgeport. “They own businesses and are buying homes. If there was a line they could get into to (obtain citizenship) they would find the money to get into that line.”
J.R. Romano, the state’s Republican Party chairman, defended the president’s plan, noting undocumented immigrants are breaking the law, and he said the cost of that illegal behavior exceeds what those workers provide in taxes and buying power.
“Look at Bernie Madoff,” Romano said, referring to the convicted Wall Street trader who stole millions from clients. “How much did he generate in taxes? Does that mean his crime was any less? If you violate the law, that’s illegal. We are a nation that has been successful because of our belief in law and order.”
Big impact
The New American Economy study found both legal and illegal immigrants benefit the state’s economy, noting Connecticut’s 494,059 foreign-born residents make up 13.7 percent of the population and pay $5.1 billion in state and local taxes.
Legal immigrants in 2014 held $13.8 billion in spending power, owned 116,343 homes, accounted for 42.1 percent of the building services industry and 57.8 percent of the computer software designer industry, the study found.
The state’s 129,884 undocumented immigrants include 13,028 entrepreneurs, and collectively paid $145 million in state and local taxes. About 79 percent of undocumented immigrants are of working age, the study said.
Nationally, immigrants earned $1.3 trillion in 2014 and contributed $105 billion in state and local taxes, and almost $224 billion in federal taxes.
“There are many compelling reasons why having a large undocumented population is a problem for society,” the study noted. “It undermines law and order, permits a shadow economy that is harder to regulate, and is simply unfair to the millions of immigrants who have come here legally.”
But the New American study said the data also shows a large number of undocumented immigrants are working, paying taxes and starting their own businesses.
“They also play an integral role in our economy, often filling jobs in agriculture, construction and hospitality that would otherwise remain vacant,” the study said. “This is true in Connecticut, where undocumented immigrants contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes each year.”
“Live without fear”
State Rep. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, has introduced a bill in the General Assembly to repeal the state’s “drive-only” law that allows undocumented residents to obtain licenses for driving only, not proof of citizenship.
Sampson said he introduced the repeal bill because Connecticut is creating a climate that draws immigrants to the state illegally. “I think it’s dangerous to create incentives that make Connecticut a desirable place to go,” he said.
The New American study, Sampson added, is an insufficient argument for living in the state illegally.
“I don’t think that paying taxes is enough,” Sampson said. “Money should not be the end all reason to violate the law. We should amend legal immigration. Most who come in legally want to make a life for themselves. But they have to do it legally.”
State Rep. Chris Soto, D-New London, pointed out the financial benefits of undocumented workers as he spoke last week against repeal of the drive-only law during a public hearing before the General Assembly’s transportation committee.
“Ask businesses owners what the impact would be on their businesses and how this would impact the number of construction jobs,” Soto said. “This brings out of the shadows people who want to comply with the law.”
Anghy Idrovo, an undocumented Danbury resident and a CT Students for a Dream organizer, said the drive-only law helps his family get to work and make a living.
“Having a license has allowed my family and me to drive and live without fear,” Idrovo said. “If this program is taken away, I will be afraid every time that I drive myself to work or drive my brothers to school, or every time my parents drive to work to support my family.”
Other Democratic lawmakers pledged to quickly kill the bill.
“We are trying to give these individuals an opportunity,” said State Rep. Antonio Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill and co-chairman of the transportation committee. “It’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
‘A different side’
Philip Bern, a Stamford lawyer who specializes in immigration, said he hears talk about how undocumented residents take up space in schools, hospitals and use other public services that they don’t pay for.
“None of that is true,” Bern said. “Large sectors of our economy depend on their labor, such as agriculture, construction and restaurants. They babysit kids. They pay a lot in taxes. There are economists who say they more than pay for themselves.”
Kinsman said since Trump announced his plan she has received non-stop calls from immigrants seeking help and advice.
“My phone has not stopped ringing,” Kinsman said. “I’m getting calls from 30 or 40 new clients a day, ranging from green card holders who are terrified to undocumented clients who want to take their children out of school. This is making us less safe. They are afraid to call the police.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, said Trump’s policies are wrong for America.
“This plan threatens to rip apart families and strip away key legal rights, making us no more safe, and betraying American values,” Blumenthal said. “By prioritizing every unauthorized immigrant, this plan effectively prioritizes no one, putting fear-mongering over sound policy and public safety.”
Romano said he understands immigration reform is a difficult issue, and conceded some people will be harmed by Trump’s policies.
“But there is a different side to this,” Romano said. “People who are doing everything that they are supposed to be doing are being negatively impacted by this. I’m proud to live in a nation that people are trying to get into. But that does not mean we should throw away the rules. The law is the law.”
Did I miss it or did these folks leave out how much public assistance these 130,000 "undocumented" folks receive? (And could they throw in other public expenditures like schooling, incarceration, and general pro rated costs of government.)
ML/NJ
If the study does not include the costs of these imported Democrat voters on the American taxpayers, it is totally worthless, stupid and irrelevant. The next snowflake that tells me that we need to do something about “all the poverty” in this country is going to get a poke in the chops and a kick in the ass. I’m tired of hearing it.
Now there's a winner for you. His "dream" is the taxpayers' nightmare.
Besides which, they’re not “undocumented” in the first place. While they may all be fraudulent, they’ve got lots and lots of documents.
If illegals are so valuable, it seems that Mexico would be overjoyed to get them all back.
Just remember.. This is what they WANT everyone to think.
It’s not working though. We know they’re criminals and want them sent back.
Did I miss something?
UNTRUE. they get every penny of these taxes BACK, PLUS the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) with Additional Credit cash for each child. Tens of thousands WE pay them to be here every year.
The Mom and or Dads and anyone that looks of age votes!
Time to send them all back
So subtract now from those numbers all the welfare and free medicine and income tax credits and prison expense and how much of a benefit is left? It is surely a largish negative number. If there were no possibility of any sort of welfare and if there was consistent arrest and punishment of criminal offenders then the illegals would not be such a terrible drag on the economy, some but not like it is. If business taxes were simply eliminated and most business regulation, too, then with all the business flooding back into the borders, illegals would not be a detriment. Excepting, of course, Moslems-legal or illegal.
The Mom and or Dads and anyone that looks of age votes!
Time to send them all back
It’s unfair to everyone here legally
So....let's run some numbers.
$397 million / 130 thousand = $3,000 per person
The illegal alien who works 40 hours a week, for $10 an hour, makes $20k.
A standard deduction of $6300
One personal exemption of $4050
That equals $10,350
Leaving a taxable income of $9,650
Meaning they'll pay $984 in federal income tax.
They'll pay $141 in Connecticut state income tax.
For a total of 1125 in federal and state income tax.
That same person, with one child, would not pay any federal income tax, but instead receive $725 from the government.
With a stolen SS number, they would also GET $3373 from the Earned Income Tax Credit.
On top of that, the single person would also qualify for food stamps. The maximum MONTHLY benefit for the single person would be $194/ $2328 per year.
For the single parent w/ child its $357 per MONTH or $4284 per year.
Should that child be in school, Connecticut spends $10,285 per student
CT they are ILLEGAL. What part of that do you not understand?
The Senator the same one who lied about serving, that one?
Yea and he thinks the policies are wrong for the country and we will break families up. Well they have families back in their country,so in a way we are also putting families back together.
Illegals do not pay taxes as they do not have SS. Now if they do then they have committed ID theft and hurt an American.
So lets stop this nonsense of them paying taxes.
During my time up in Boston working I met many illegals who were form Ireland and not one of them paid any tax, and all of them laughed at how stupid Americans were.
Just said the same, they do not pay taxes unless they have stolen someones identity which is another crime the have done.
So they come here and break the law. They then do not pay tax which again is breaking the law.
If they are paying taxes then they have committed ID theft which means they have broken the law.
Either way they have broken the law at least twice and been a burden on this country.
Those numbers are a bit difficult to buy. Illegal aliens are pumping ‘billions’ into the CT economy? None of them are slopping at the public trough? Really?
you can;t pay tax unless you have SS number, which they do not as the left states they are undocumented. The left trying to have it both ways again.
Illegal aliens disproportionately harm the poor and middle class. The “boon” is only to the wealthy who can exploit cheap labor in a rigged system. The illegals may pay some taxes and spend some money, but they also steal identities, take jobs from legal citizens and residents, and put a financial burden on tax payers and those who otherwise subsidize their housing, food, education, transportation, communication, medical, dental, and vision care expenses.
And this is just for the otherwise law abiding illegals. The others, even if only a small percentage, commit heinous crimes and hide behind the reluctance of the political left to enforce the laws that they agreed to when those from the political right (such as Reagan) made vast compromises and concessions.
The left has a very narcissistic idea of compromise. They are perfectly willing to work with those who disagree with them, as long as they get everything they want.
The one thing I do not have confidence in Trump being able to accomplish is uniting the country. The country will only unite after the left and right have gone their separate ways. The left does not want an amicable divorce. That would leave them with no one to foot the bill for their lavish government spending. It would be the most awesome outcome if Trump is so successful that the vast majority of the next generation completely rejects liberalism, socialism, and communism as failed philosophies. I’m not holding my breath though.
Thank you. I am so sick of this ‘undocumented immigrant’ crap. We lived in a sanctuary city before we fled SoCal for good. They’re illegal aliens. I’m only too familiar with what it’s all about.
So many once charming neighborhoods have been taken over by criminal gangs and drug dealers. Drunk driving is rampant. Crime is high.
We lived in a gated community with a guard, which I highly recommend if you plan to live anywhere near a sanctuary city.
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