Please note!

This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.

Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF

Do people living in the US illegally pay billions in Social Security taxes every year?

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

By Gus Fisher

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YES

The Social Security Administration estimated that in 2010 3.1 million people living in the country without legal authorization contributed $13 billion to the system, while receiving only $1 billion in benefits. Its 2013 report forecast “a continuation of this positive impact on the trust funds.”

These figures reflected the taxed earnings of workers with expired temporary visas, fraudulent social security numbers or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, a number which non-citizens can obtain to make it easier to process taxes. The numbers are issued to non-citizens regardless of their legal status.

New American Economy, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, reports that people living in the U.S. illegally pay a total of $30.6 billion in state, local, and federal taxes every year.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Social Security Administration: Effects of unauthorized Immigration on the actuarial status of the Social Security Trust Funds

Internal Revenue Service: Immigration and Taxation (2014)

Bipartisan Policy Center: How do undocumented immigrants pay federal taxes? An explainer

New American Economy: Immigrants and the US economy

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Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.