How much do undocumented immigrants pay in federal, state, and local taxes annually according to ITEP?

1. The headline number and its anatomy

ITEP’s headline finding—$96.7 billion in 2022 taxes from undocumented immigrants—represents combined federal, state, and local payments and is the central figure cited across ITEP’s reports, state breakdown pages, and media summaries of the study ^{[1] [3] [2]}. Within that total, ITEP reports $59.4 billion flowed to federal coffers while $37.3 billion went to state and local governments, with nearly 39 percent of the total tax dollars allocated to state and local revenue streams ^{[2] [3]}.

2. Payroll taxes: paying into programs they largely can’t access

A substantial share of ITEP’s estimated tax receipts from undocumented immigrants comes from payroll taxes—ITEP quantifies $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes for 2022—underscoring the paradox of workers contributing to social insurance systems from which they will, in most cases, be ineligible for benefits ^{[4] [2]}.

3. State and local contours: where the money goes and how it’s measured

ITEP provides state-level breakdowns showing variation by jurisdiction—for example, it reports that undocumented Texans paid $4.9 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 and that California undocumented residents contributed $8.5 billion to state and local taxes that year—while noting that sales, excise, and property taxes make up a large share of state and local contributions ^{[5] [6] [3] [4]}. The organization also publishes interactive maps and appendices for readers to see contributions by state and to model potential changes if work authorization were expanded ^{[3] [2]}.

4. Methodology caveats and ITEP’s own framing

ITEP’s estimates are derived from a methodology that combines demographic estimates, income assumptions, tax filing behavior, and effective tax rate models built from previous “Who Pays?” work; the report discloses adjustments—for example, assumptions about income levels, remittances, and the share of undocumented households filing tax returns—and notes that expanded work authorization would raise tax contributions substantially ^{[7] [1] [2]}. ITEP also emphasizes it did not attempt to measure broader economic spillovers from undocumented immigrants’ activity, such as induced tax revenues from increased consumption or business formation ^[2].

5. Pushback and competing perspectives

Advocacy and policy groups have challenged ITEP’s figures: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) disputed the study’s population and income assumptions and argued ITEP overstates tax contributions, framing the headline claim as inflated and criticizing comparisons of effective tax rates to the top 1 percent ^[8]. ITEP’s reports and allied organizations, by contrast, stress transparency about assumptions and highlight the policy implications—such as potential revenue increases from legalizing work authorization—that flow from their models ^{[2] [4]}.

6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting

The clearest, supported answer in ITEP’s materials is that undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022, split roughly $59.4 billion federal and $37.3 billion state and local, with detailed line items (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment) reported within the study; critiques exist focused on methodology and assumptions, and ITEP itself notes it does not quantify wider economic ripple effects beyond direct tax payments ^{[1] [2] [4] [8]}.