Undocumented immigrants are not their occupations or their contributions, but if folks are going to slander aspiring Americans as takers, let’s get a couple of things straight. Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $12 billion in local and state taxes annually, and despite not being eligible for the benefits they pay into as U.S. taxpayers, have paid an estimated $100 billion into the Social Security fund over a decade, helping keep it solvent for others. That includes the fringe of the American public that wants immigration slashed and to see undocumented immigrants already here deported:
Without robust immigration, each American worker will need to support substantially more retirees in the future than workers do today. And that will greatly increase the pressure for either unsustainable tax increases or biting benefit reductions in the federal retirement programs that the older and blue-collar whites central to Trump's support rely upon so heavily.
Trump's hostility to immigration ignores one of the central dynamics of 21st century American life: an increasingly non-white workforce will pay the taxes that support Social Security and Medicare for a rapidly growing and preponderantly white senior population.
"As every baby boomer retires over the next 15 years, we are going to need many more of these (diverse) young people to take their place," says William Frey, a demographer at the center-left Brookings Institution.
Of course, immigrant workers shouldn’t have to remain in the U.S. for the sole purpose of helping white retirees with their Social Security checks. Undocumented immigrants deserve the chance at citizenship. They deserve the same civil and labor rights as any other American. They deserve the chance to thrive and see their families succeed, and those who wish to sponsor their families should be able to do so. But, yes, it’s also true Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies will hurt the local and state economies—and his own supporters:
If the workforce remains essentially unchanged while the senior population grows by 40 million, each worker will be required to fund 80% more seniors than they do now. That demographic imbalance represents a political tourniquet that will inexorably increase pressure for cuts in Social Security and Medicare -- a prospect that polls show are anathema to the older and working-class whites Trump relies on.
"We shouldn't be shutting the door on this (immigration)," Frey says. "Trump ... is really putting us in a very difficult situation demographically and also economically in the future.”
Mass deportation would cost the U.S. economy billions, while passing legislation like the DREAM Act would benefit the U.S. economyby up to $1 trillion. When it comes to undocumented immigrant youth who would benefit from the legislation, the vast majority of Americans (nearly 80 percent) want them on a path to citizenship. “With his systematic offensive against immigration,” Ronald Brownstein reports, “Trump is feeding the prejudices of some of his supporters—while threatening their ability to keep food on the table when they retire.”