Illegal immigrants pay fewer taxes but receive even fewer benefits, reducing the debt

Benefits used and taxes generated by noncitizens, taxes generated, federal, state, and local, 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.