Immigration Myths vs Facts: What the Data Actually Shows

The economic consensus on this question is remarkably strong. A comprehensive review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017) found that immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth and that its effects on the wages and employment of native-born workers are very small. Immigrants and native-born workers largely complement each other rather than competing for the same jobs — they tend to work in different occupations and have different skill profiles.

Immigrants fill critical gaps at both ends of the skill spectrum. At the high end, immigrants make up 45% of medical research scientists, 36% of software developers in Silicon Valley, and over 50% of PhD-holding STEM workers. At the entry level, immigrants fill agricultural, construction, food processing, and care economy jobs that have persistent labor shortages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics consistently finds that sectors with high immigrant employment do not show higher unemployment among native-born workers.

Where there is a real effect, it is small and concentrated. Some studies find modest wage pressure on native-born workers without a high school diploma — roughly 2-5% over a decade. But even this is debated, and compensating effects (lower consumer prices, business creation by immigrants, increased demand for goods and services) offset the wage impact. Immigrants are 80% more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans, creating jobs rather than taking them.

All immigrants — including undocumented immigrants — pay taxes. Sales taxes, property taxes (directly or through rent), and excise taxes are paid by everyone who buys goods, rents housing, or uses gasoline regardless of legal status. These alone amount to billions in annual contributions.

Undocumented immigrants specifically pay an estimated $11.6 billion per year in state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Many also pay federal income tax and payroll tax using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) — the IRS issues these specifically so people without Social Security numbers can pay taxes. The Social Security Administration estimates that undocumented workers contribute approximately $13 billion per year in payroll taxes to Social Security — benefits they are not eligible to receive. They are net contributors to the system.

Legal immigrants — including green card holders, visa workers, and naturalized citizens — are taxed identically to native-born Americans. There is no tax advantage to being an immigrant. In fact, because immigrants skew younger and are more likely to be of working age, they have a higher labor force participation rate than the native-born population, generating proportionally more tax revenue per capita over their lifetimes.

The vast majority of immigration to the United States is legal. Approximately 1 million people receive lawful permanent residence (green cards) each year. Several hundred thousand more arrive on temporary work visas (H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, L-1, etc.), student visas, and other legal pathways. The total undocumented population in the US is estimated at approximately 11 million — a number that has remained roughly stable since 2005.

Of the undocumented population, nearly half entered the country legally on a valid visa and then overstayed — they are not border crossers. Visa overstays have exceeded illegal border crossings as a source of unauthorized immigration every year for more than a decade. The image of undocumented immigration as primarily border jumping is outdated and inaccurate.

Net unauthorized immigration was effectively zero or slightly negative for much of the 2010s — meaning roughly as many undocumented immigrants were leaving the US (through deportation, voluntary return, or death) as were arriving. The system is broken not because of a flood of illegal entrants but because of a legal immigration system that hasn't been meaningfully updated since 1990, creating decades-long backlogs for legal entry and forcing people into unauthorized channels.