Illegal immigrants pay fewer federal taxes but receive even fewer federal benefits

Benefits used and taxes generated by noncitizens, taxes generated, federal only, with estimates for illegal noncitizens, 1994–2023

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Sources: Bier, David J., Michael Howard, and Julián Salazar. “Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994–2023,” White Paper, Cato Institute, Washington, DC, February 3, 2026; Calculations are based primarily on the Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the US Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey for March 1994–2023; “National Data: National Income and Product Accounts,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, last revised September 2025; “DATASET: Undocumented Immigrants in the United States, by Educational Attainment and Year, 2010–2019,” Center for Migration Studies, August 25, 2022; and “Estimates of Undocumented and Eligible-to-Naturalize Populations by State,” Center for Migration Studies, 2025. See Appendix for full details.
Note: All amounts are in inflation-adjusted 2024 dollars.