I recently received this tweet:

“My question is, what is the percentage of deadbeat Americans and illegals living off the hard-working, taxpayers of America! Give me some numbers! And what taxes do the illegals pay! They pay in cash and work for Cash! The Left always says, but they pay taxes! No they don't!”

Actually, a good number of undocumented immigrants pay taxes, thanks to the thriving market in fake Social Security and green cards (easy to obtain for a trifling $80-$200) and the legal requirement that employers fill out I-9 forms on all new hires. According to the Social Security Administration, 3.1 million undocumented immigrants paid Social Security taxes in 2010, about half the undocumented workers in the country at the time. This translates to roughly $12 billion in federal payroll taxes.

Then there are state and local taxes, including sales and excise taxes on goods and services, property taxes and personal income taxes. A study by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy estimated undocumented immigrants paid $11.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2013. Combining federal, state and local taxes, a 2013 Heritage Foundation report estimated the average undocumented immigrant household paid $10,334 per year in taxes - a figure that takes into account the roughly 50% of undocumented households that pay no payroll or income taxes.

But paying taxes is just part of the story. The other part is “tax consumption”: the value of tax-funded benefits and services consumed by households. These include Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, public education, police, fire, high­ways, parks, and so on. The 2013 Heritage report estimated the average undocumented immigrant household received about $24,721 in government benefits and services, resulting in a “tax deficit” of $14,387.

In this respect, undocumented immigrants are as American as apple pie: most US households consume more in tax-funded government benefits and services than they pay in taxes.

References:

“How do Undocumented Immigrants Pay Federal Taxes? An Explainer” by Hunter Hallman. March 28, 2018 https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/how-do-undocumented-immigrants-pay-federal-taxes-an-explainer/

“How much do undocumented immigrants pay in taxes?” by Linda Qiu on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016 https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2016/oct/02/maria-teresa-kumar/how-much-do-undocumented-immigrants-pay-taxes/

“Peddled on the Streets of Los Angeles: Ice Cream, Hot Dogs, and Fake Social Security Cards”  by Miriam Jordan December 24, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/us/undocumented-immigrants-los-angeles.html

“The Distribution of Household Income, 2014” Congressional Budget Office. March 19, 2018  https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53597

"The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer,"  The Heritage Foundation, by Robert Rector and Jason Richwine. May 6, 2013

"Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions," by Lisa Christensen Gee, Matthew Gardner and Meg Wiehe. The Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, February 2016