Yvette Herrell Votes No on Immigration
U.S. Representative Yvette Herrell paints immigrants as criminals - we know better. Immigrants are not a drag on New Mexico’s economy. They are a net benefit.
Don’t be fooled: we need better immigration policies, but Yvette Herrell doesn’t have a clue. Get the facts.
Don’t be fooled: we need better immigration policies, but Yvette Herrell doesn’t have a clue. Get the facts.
CRIME:
TAXES:
Undocumented Immigrants pay taxes.
Taxes paid by undocumented immigrants are greater than the cost to educate their children.
Granting legal status to NM undocumented immigrants and allowing them to work here legally would boost their state and local tax contributions by more than $8 million to $75.7 million because:
THE BORDER:
We must and we will protect our border. Smart technology can do it better – and cheaper – than a wall.
Learn more: The “smarter” wall: How drones, sensors, and AI are patrolling the border
"In this 21st century, we have challenges, and I think we can use 21st-century solutions instead of a 14th-century solution called the wall,” said [Henry Cuellar (D-TX)] in an interview with the technology news site Recode. “Even if you put in a fence, ‘bad guys’ can use drones to carry drugs over that fence. So we have to be more flexible, more agile.”
Politicians who control the purse for security spending find a smart wall’s cost-effectiveness is appealing over extending a physical wall that could cost millions of dollars per mile. Source: Brookings Institution
Undocumented Immigrants pay taxes.
- In 2017, undocumented immigrants in New Mexico paid $67.7 million in state and local taxes. Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)
- When undocumented immigrants buy things, they are paying gross receipts taxes just like everyone else.
- Undocumented immigrants rent or own homes (paying property taxes) in New Mexico.
- Many undocumented immigrants also pay state income taxes.
- At least half of undocumented immigrant households currently file income tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs), and many who do not file income tax returns still have taxes deducted from their paychecks. Source: Undocumented Immigrants State and Local Tax Contributions
- Undocumented immigrants’ nationwide average effective tax rate is 8 percent.
- The wealthiest 1 percent of US citizens have an average effective tax rate of 5.4%. Source: ITEP and summary.
- The Internal Revenue Service created a program 25 years ago allowing people without a Social Security number to file taxes. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget office shows that 50% to 75% of undocumented immigrants pay billions in federal taxes each year including Social Security. Source: The Columbus Dispatch and Congressional Budget Office (CB0), “The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments”
- Federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving most tax-payer funded government services, including Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Security, childcare subsidies, housing assistance, etc. Source ITEP, New Mexico New Mexico Fiscal Policy Project, (NMFFP) “Undocumented Immigrants in New Mexico,” and Vox, “Undocumented Immigrants Pay Millions of Dollars in State Taxes — Even in the Reddest States.”
- There’s no advantage to undocumented immigrants skirting the law and receiving government services. That would jeopardize their ability to become citizens. Source: NMFPP
Taxes paid by undocumented immigrants are greater than the cost to educate their children.
- Undocumented immigrants do receive one taxpayer-funded benefit: primary and secondary public education for their children. But does K-12 public education cost more than what undocumented immigrants send to local and state governments in taxes? No! The NM Fiscal Policy Project says New Mexico collects about $1 million to $2 million more in income, property and sales taxes than it spends on public elementary & secondary education for undocumented kids. Source: NMFPP and CBO.
- And when the children of undocumented immigrants grow up, they repay the costs of their education through a lifetime of taxes.
- America’s history is filled with stories of immigrants arriving penniless but within a couple of generations, thanks to U.S. education, paying back in spades the support they received as newcomers by becoming professionals, business owners and the essential workers our economy needs.
- Source: Brookings, The Hamilton Project, “Ten Economic Facts About Immigration,” https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/09_immigration.pdf
- Do Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes? https://www.thoughtco.com/illegal-immigrants-and-tax-estimates-3321604·
- Immigrants and the New Mexico Economy: Working Hard for Low Wages, https://www.nmvoices.org/fpp_attachments/immigrants_and_economy_full_rpt_6-08.pdf
Granting legal status to NM undocumented immigrants and allowing them to work here legally would boost their state and local tax contributions by more than $8 million to $75.7 million because:
- legal status would increase their income and
- there would be full compliance with the tax code because most reform measure include strong incentive to comply with tax law. Source: ITEP
THE BORDER:
We must and we will protect our border. Smart technology can do it better – and cheaper – than a wall.
Learn more: The “smarter” wall: How drones, sensors, and AI are patrolling the border
"In this 21st century, we have challenges, and I think we can use 21st-century solutions instead of a 14th-century solution called the wall,” said [Henry Cuellar (D-TX)] in an interview with the technology news site Recode. “Even if you put in a fence, ‘bad guys’ can use drones to carry drugs over that fence. So we have to be more flexible, more agile.”
Politicians who control the purse for security spending find a smart wall’s cost-effectiveness is appealing over extending a physical wall that could cost millions of dollars per mile. Source: Brookings Institution
- Trump’s – and Yvette Herrell’s – wall is a boondoggle and a serious drag on taxpayers. See more.
- City and state lawmakers dispute Congresswoman Herrell's portrayal of immigrants in the Albuquerque Journal.