6 events in Passaic County with a date

Migrants essential to U.S. economy success

By: Marina Vitalin
Your Turn
Guest Columnist

..... A few months age, a student in my macroeconomics class raised his hand and asked, "why do we let undocumented immigrates stay here if they're just taking from the system?"
..... It was an honest question, and I understood where it came from.
..... this topic has been everywhere for the past two years - on cable talk shows, in campaign speeches, at dinner tables and, most recently, on the news as immigration raids sweep through communities across the country.
..... The anti-immigrant rhetoric is catchy and persistent: Undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes. "they're drain on the economy." They're taking American jobs." they're dangerous."
..... As an economics educator my job is to look at the data. And the data tells a very different story.
..... Undocumented immigrant pay nearly $100 billion a year in taxes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, the most recent year studied. That's $8,889 per person.
..... In New Jersey, immigrant contributions totaled $1.3 billion in state and local taxes - sales taxes paid at the grocery store, property taxes embedded in rent, and payroll taxes withheld from paychecks.
..... Many undocumented worse file income taxes using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers legally issued by the IRS.
..... Undocumented immigrants are paying into Social Security and Medicare. Here's what surprise s most people: More than a third of those tax dollars mentioned earlier go directly into Social Security and Medicare - programs undocumented workers are legally barred from ever accessing. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion into Social Security alone. that's not a drain on the system. that's a subsidy.
..... Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens or documented immigrants. a peer-reviewed study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, using Texas Department of Public Safety data, found that native-born citizens were over twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2 1/2 times more likely for drug crimes, and more than four times more likely for property crimes, compared with undocumented immigrants.
..... Homicide arrest ates for undocumented immigrants were less that half those of U. S.-born citizens throughout the entire study period. the Cato Institute confirmed similar patterns: In 2023, the incarceration rate for native-born Americans ages 18 to 24 was 1,221 per 100,000 people, compared with 613 for undocumented immigrates and just 319 for legal immigrants within the same age range.
..... Undocumented immigrants help to reduce the federal deficit,. In a widely cited 2024 report, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the increase in immigration between 2021 and 2024 would reduce the federal deficit by $900 billion over the following decade.
..... How? Because the additional $1.2 trillion in federal tax revenue these immigrants generate far exceeds the $177 billion in spending on programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
..... In February 2026, after immigration enforcement reduced the "other foreign nationals" population - roughly two-thirds of whom were undocumented - by an estimated 360,000, the CBO revised its outlooks: The administration's immigration actions will now increase the deficit by $500 billion over the same period, beaus fewer people remain in the country to pay taxes. That's a $1.4 trillion swing - not form spending more, but from expelling taxpayers.
..... The 2024 CBO report also projected that mitigation would boost Social Security revenues by $348 billion over the flowing decade - assuming those workers would stay - and keep paying into a system they'll never draw fro,. the CBO now estimates the Sosa Security's trust fund will be depleted by 2032 - one year sooner than previously calculated.

Filling jobs we need filled

..... I know these numbers might be hard to accept - they were hard for some of my students, too. We've heard the negative sentiments expressed so often and so confidently that the data can feel wrong even when the sources are right. But every figure in this article comes from the same institutions our government uses to make policy: The Congressional Budget Office, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IRS, the Social Security Administration. these institutions don't have a side. Tye have data. And if we're serious about making good policy, we owe it to ourselves to take that data seriously, even when it challenges what we think we know.
..... Immigrants are filling the jobs Americans won't take. Roughly 8.3 million undocumented workers make up about 5% of the U.S. labor force. They represent up to half of all hired crop and field workers, a quarter of construction workers and one in 10 workers in food processing, landscaping and restaurants. In 2011, North Carolina tried to recruit American workers for 6,500 farm jobs. A mere 268 people applied, 245 were hired, 163 showed up on day one, and only seven American workers finished the farming season. The research consistently shows that undocumented workers are not competing with native-born Americans-they're complementing them, filling essential roles in industries that would otherwise face crippling labor shortages.
..... Immigrant spending boosts local economies. When millions of people stop shopping, eating out and paying rent, the ripple effects hit everyone - including the native-born Americans who own those businesses and work alongside their undocumented neighbors.
..... After heightened immigration enforcement in 2025, consumer spending in heavily immigrant neighborhoods in Orange County, California, dropped 20 to 25% in just eight weeks, costing local businesses an estimated $59 million. In Los Angeles County, 82% of businesses survived reported negative impacts, with 44% losing more than half th8ier revenue. Business owners described economic conditions worse than during the COVID-19 pandemic. in agriculture, 155,000 workers left the industry between March and July 2025, leading to crop losses, supply chain slowdowns and ricing food prices.
..... The Brookings Institution estimates that reduced immigration will dampen consumer spending by $60 billion to $110 billion over 2025-2026.
..... The stated goal of immigration enforcement is to protect Americans. The economic damage of these policies is already clear. The human cost may be greater still.
..... Undocumented immigrates are more vulnerable to crime. Their illegal status makes them easy targets. A peer-revived study in the Journal of Policy analysis and Management found that only 17% of undocumented victims report crimes to police, because they fear deportation even more than they fear their abusers. Advocates for victims of domestic and sexual violence report that abusers routinely weaponize mitigation status, and Human rights Watch has warned that current enforcement policies are driving victims further into the shadows.
..... When the government rolled back protections that had kept immigration agents out of domestic violence shelters, hospitals and courthouses, it didn't make communities safer. It made the most vulnerable people - mostly women and children - less likely to seek help and protection.
..... The children are paying the price. there are roughly 5.6 million U.S. citizen children living with an undocumented family member - 85% of them under age 15. According to a 2025 KFF survey, nearly 1 in 5 immigrant parents reported that their child's well-being had suffered since enforcement escalated - including problems sleeping and eating, changes in school performance and behavioral issues.
..... The effect of aggressive immigration enforcement efforts are showing u0p in the official data. Student absences in California's Central Vally jumped 22% in early 2025, and Los Angeles and Miami-Dade saw 4% drops in school enrollment. One million fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP by October 2025 that at the state of the year - not because they lost eligibility, but because their parents were afraid that seeking help would put their families at risk Eleven percent of immigrant adults stopped participating in food and health care programs entirely. these children are American citizens. and the fear surrounding their parents is already affecting their health, their education and their future.
..... As an economics educator, I teach my students to follow the data, not the headlines. And the data form the CBO, the IRS, the Social Security Administration and leading research institutions all point in the same direction. Undocumented immigrants are net contributors to the American economy. they pay billions into programs they can't benefit from. they fill jobs that keep our food affordable and our homes built. They lower the deficit and extend the solvency of Social Security. and when they're driven away, local economies suffer - measurably and immediately.
..... None of this is an argument against border security or a functioning immigration system. But when we decide policy on myths instead of facts, we risk making decisions that hurt the very economy we're trying to protect - and the very people, including millions of American children, we claim to be protecting.
..... My students deserved an honest answer that day. So do the rest of us.

..... Want to review my data sources? Go to MarianVitalin.com/immigraiton_data . Marina Vitalin is a New Jersey economic educator, researcher and author. She holds a master's degree in economics and entrepreneurship from the University of Delaware.

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