NEW JERSEY

Report: N.J. young immigrants pay $66 million in taxes

Monsy Alvarado
Staff Writer, @MonsyAlvarado

New Jersey’s young undocumented immigrants contribute at least $66 million in state and local taxes each year, the seventh highest level of all states, according to a report released Tuesday by The Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy.

A protester holds a sign that reads, "The American Dream is alive in every immigrant's home," during a rally in opposition of President Donald Trump's immigration ban at the Rutgers University-Newark campus on Feb. 1, 2017.  Rutgers-Newark rally

The report by the nonprofit organization also found that those tax contributions in New Jersey by young immigrants, who came to the country as children and are eligible for protections from deportation and work permits under a 2012 presidential executive order, would increase by $27 million if lawmakers passed comprehensive immigration reform and offered them a path to citizenship. It says that the state could lose about $21 million if the presidential order, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, were terminated.

“Once young immigrants are given a chance, they capitalize on the opportunity – and their tax contributions are merely one indicator of these New Jerseyans' contributions to the state,’’ Erika Nava, policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, said in a statement about the report.  “Providing them, and the rest of the undocumented community, a legal path to citizenship would only strengthen the state’s economy.”

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President Donald Trump has not announced any changes to DACA, which he said on the campaign trail he would end. Recently though, he has said that he is going to work something out for the young immigrants, known as dreamers, but has not announced any specifics.

More than 770,000 individuals were enrolled in the program as of March 2017, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors low immigration, criticized the report because it does not include figures on how much DACA enrollees create in costs such as public education, in-state college tuition, and earned income or the child tax credits.

“That is the big question right, everybody knows that illegal immigrants pay taxes even when they are paid off the books,’’ said Camarota. “Half the equation is missing here, it’s like anything else which always comes up. What is the total fiscal balance is what we want to know and this doesn’t give us that.”

“It could still be a really bad deal to let them all stay or could be a good deal, but nothing here answers that question for us,’’ he added.

The study states that more than 1.3 million out of the approximately 11 million undocumented population in the country are eligible for DACA, and that they contribute an estimated $2 billion in tax dollars that help pay for schools, public infrastructure and other services.

The report found that DACA enrollment has helped young immigrants become more engaged in their communities. A national survey of DACA enrollees last year found that 40 percent of those surveyed secured their first job after DACA approval, and more than 60 percent landed a job with better pay, the report states.

“When given the opportunity to work legally and a reprieve from deportation, DACA recipients are able to work more, earn more wages and are less likely to be victims of wage theft,’’ the report says.

DACA also allowed 60 percent of those surveyed to pursue educational opportunities that weren’t available to them prior to the program, according to the report. DACA participants, according to the study, work in diverse industries, including educational and health services, wholesale and retail, and professional and business services .