Report: Undocumented Immigrants Paid $96.7 Billion in 2022 Taxes

Happy August. The Latino Newsletter now has more than 600 subscribers. Thank you! Today, we wanted to share some of the stories we have been following this week.

On Tuesday, a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit, nonpartisan tax policy organization, said that “Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022.”

“Most of that amount, $59.4 billion, was paid to the federal government while the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments,” ITEP added.

The study authors noted that “More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.”

The entire ITEP analysis is here in PDF form and online here in web form.

Puerto Rican Groups and Progressive Allies Condemn Policy Event Featuring Resident Commissioner

On Wednesday, the Power 4 Puerto Rico Coalition issued a statement signed by several progressive groups and elected officials about a July 31 Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute “Puerto Rico Policy Hill Briefing” event, featuring Resident Commissioner and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer González and a representative from the Heritage Foundation, among other panel members. This is the full statement:

At a time when democracy is under siege, we are appalled that elected representatives of the Puerto Rico statehood party and affiliated groups are teaming up with the Heritage Foundation.   

As widely reported, the Heritage Foundation is bent on ushering in Project 2025, which calls for a dystopian and authoritarian Trump administration that destroys the independence of the judicial system, dismantles the federal civil service and rolls back basic freedoms like reproductive and civil rights, among other extreme measures. For both the Puerto Rican diaspora of 5.8 million and our home country of Puerto Rico, this would be disastrous and worsen the already untenable colonial situation under the United States.

For the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Congress, who was also the former chair of Latinos for Trump and is now a gubernatorial candidate, and a panel of individuals who claim to support “equal rights” or democracy for Puerto Rico, but in turn, normalize the Project 2025 agenda of this far-right institution once again reveals the statehood party for the MAGA-embracing organization that it is.

According to journalist José A. Delgado, El Nuevo Día’s Washington correspondent, Puerto Rican activist David Galarza interrupted the event.

New Data About Eligible Latino Voters in Nevada

The UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute produced new data about eligible Latino voters in Nevada, a critical 2024 swing state. Click here for the entire report.

These are some of the findings from a Wednesday press release about the data :

• The Latino eligible voter population in Nevada has more than tripled since 2000, now making up 20.9% of the state’s electorate.

• Latino-eligible voters are the youngest racial or ethnic group of eligible voters in Nevada, with a median age of 37. Additionally, over a quarter of these voters are naturalized citizens.

• A significant portion of Latino voters are bilingual, with 45% speaking both English and Spanish. An additional 17% speak only Spanish, highlighting the need to invest in Spanish-language outreach.

The UCLA work is part of its comprehensive Latino Data Hub series.

In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 34,596 votes. Before Vice President Kamala entered the presidential race at the end of July, Trump was clearly ahead across several Nevada general polls. A July 24-28 Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll had Harris with a 2-point lead over Trump.

On July 22, Latino pollster Carlos Odio shared some insights about Harris and Latino voters in Nevada.

What We’re Reading

Border Crossings Continue to Drop: From a Thursday morning story by Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News: “Unlawful crossings by migrants along the U.S. southern border dropped for the fifth consecutive month in July, plunging to the lowest level since the fall of 2020, internal government figures obtained by CBS News show.” (Story here)

Harris and Latinos: The great Gregory Cadava published a very detailed Thursday piece for The New Yorker about Latinos and presidential politics. (Story here)

No Latino VP Candidates: Over at The Los Angeles Times, columnist Gustavo Arellano writes the following about the Democratic vice presidential candidate speculation game: “The names of hopefuls bandied around by pundits and Democratic voters alike have spanned the country, age groups, and the gradations of the liberal spectrum. But in nearly all the conversations I’ve seen, heard and read, there’s an unsurprising omission. Latinos.” (Story here)

Meanwhile, over at The Chicago Tribune: