Trump pays less in taxes than the undocumented immigrants he likes to vilify

Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he was elected president, according to a blockbuster report published by the New York Times on Sunday.

The Times report also found that Trump is millions of dollars in debt, incurred through a series of failed business ventures — a fact that runs counter to Trump’s self-made image as a successful businessman. Trump has also used his financial failings to avoid paying taxes, the report found.

The president has resisted revealing his financial information since the start of his first presidential campaign, despite promising otherwise. “I would certainly show tax returns if it was necessary,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in 2015. Yet for five years, the president has failed to produce the documents.

The president paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, and paid another $750 in 2017, according to the report. And in 2014, Trump paid zero dollars in taxes.

Conservatives including Trump often suggest that undocumented immigrants take advantage of government services without contributing their fair share. Throughout his first term, Trump has repeatedly cast blame on immigrants and suggested they pose an economic burden to U.S. taxpayers.

“Our current immigration system costs America’s taxpayers many billions of dollars a year,” Trump claimed in 2017 during his first presidential address to Congress.

That claim does not hold up to scrutiny. In reality, undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes every year. In 1996, the Internal Revenue Service created a program for non-citizens who work in the U.S. to report their income. Non-citizens who do not have a Social Security Number — including undocumented immigrants — are able to file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. According to the IRS, 4.4 million people paid taxes using an ITIN in 2015, totaling $23.6 billion in tax revenue.

This raises the question: why would undocumented immigrants pay U.S. taxes if they are unauthorized to live in the country? Immigrants often choose to pay taxes in order to demonstrate “good moral character” when applying for legal residence or citizenship, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Undocumented immigrants who fail to pay their taxes risk deportation.

“Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, paid an estimated $328 billion in state, federal, and local taxes in 2014 alone,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, told the American Independent Foundation. “It is outrageous that the average undocumented immigrant in the United States pays more in federal income taxes than the President did in 2016.”

This contrast is especially ironic given Trump’s tendency to deride unauthorized immigrants as irresponsible lawbreakers. Trump has a tendency to respond to criticism with projection — when accused, he accuses others of the same thing.

“Yes, undocumented immigrants are helping fund the very system that detain and deport us,” journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who is undocumented, tweeted in 2019.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.