Tell that to a young carpenter-cabinet maker I know who has to spend three-fifths of his time hustling work from individual homeowners because the construction companies who do the cookie-cutter jobs would rather pay some illegal less under the table.
This shows just how generally misinformed most people are on this subject, or maybe just how disingenuous.
Even the Center for Immigration Studies acknowledges that illegal immigrants paid in in excess of $87 billion dollars in taxes over a ten year period of time.
Furthermore, it falls on the employer to collect, and submit those tax payments in, not for the individual to send in a check weekly.
The Social Security Administration is trying to distribute money from its "Earnings Suspense File," comprising contributions that can’t be matched up with a proper Social Security number. That file mushroomed in the 1990s, fueled by a fast-growing work force of illegal immigrants using fake Social Security numbers to get jobs. By the end of the 2000 tax year, the file contained $374 billion.In 1994, the agency began sending out "no match" letters warning employers that they had incorrect Social Security numbers on the payroll and should straighten out their files. Last year, the agency sent about 950,000 letters, each listing as many as 500 bad numbers. But according to a report by the University of Illinois at Chicago and several immigrants-rights groups, the agency has had little success in identifying owners of the misallocated funds. The suspense file has kept growing, by $30 billion in 1998, $40 billion in 1999 and $50 billion in 2000. -- Source