Donald Trump Probably Doesn't Pay Taxes. Undocumented Immigrants Pay Billions.

Laura Clawson

Laura Clawson Editor, Daily Kos

Donald Trump, the anti-immigrant crusader, may not have paid any federal income tax for close to 20 years, to say nothing of any strategies he uses to get out of paying other taxes. Meanwhile, the immigrants he rants against as burdens on the U.S. are paying vast amounts of taxes:

A study by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found undocumented immigrants paid $11.84 billion in state and federal taxes in 2012. Researchers suggested tax contributions would increase with President Obama's executive orders on immigrations, specifically program aimed at protecting students and their parents from deportation.

According to the study:

Undocumented immigrants nationwide pay on average an estimated 8 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes (this is their effective state and local tax rate). To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay an average nationwide effective tax rate of just 5.4 percent.

Additionally:

Unauthorized workers are paying an estimated $13 billion a year in social security taxes and only getting around $1 billion back, according to a senior government statistician.

Laura Clawson has been a Daily Kos contributing editor since December 2006 and a labor editor since 2011.