The immigrant community in New Jersey contributed $1.3 billion in local and state taxes in 2022, according to a new report by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economy. The report said that more than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants goes toward state programs and benefits, from which they are barred.
“My parents are undocumented immigrants,” Erik Cruz Morales, policy and advocacy manager for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said. “They file their taxes every year and they pay taxes, and they have no benefit. They’re ineligible for Social Security, Medicare, or any federal program, but they are paying taxes into it.”
Morales, a DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipient, said he also pays his share in federal and state taxes but remains ineligible for any federal programs. Marco Guzman, co-author of the study, said he believes the data serves as a reminder that undocumented immigrants are vital to communities.
But New Jersey Republican Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Ocean) called the numbers in the study “questionable at best.” In May, Kanitra released a report that said nearly 1 in 10 residents entered the country illegally and received roughly $8,000 a year in various taxpayer-funded benefits.
“The more benefits we give out, the more people that will come here illegally,” Kanitra said. “If you want to fix the problem, then you can look at legal immigration reform, look at making the process a little bit easier … If your first act in the United States is to break our laws, then obviously you don’t have respect for our laws.”Bottom of Form
