• Immigration reform would translate into a sign

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• Immigration reform would translate into a significant decrease in the federal budget deficit.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, found that S. 744—the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, as passed by the Senate—would reduce the budget deficit by $135 billion in the first decade after the bill’s passage and by an additional $685 billion in the second decade, when most undocumented immigrants would become eligible for citizenship.

• Citizenship would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to work on the books and contribute to Social Security.

If undocumented immigrants gained legal status and citizenship, they would provide a net $606.4 billion contribution to Social Security over the next 36 years—the same time period when retiring Baby Boomers will place the greatest strain on the system. These contributions to the Social Security system would support 2.4 million American retirees.

The solvency of the Medicare trust fund would be extended if the undocumented population were able to gain legal status and citizenship.

Immigrants who are currently living in the United States without legal status could make a net contribution of $155 billion to Medicare over the next 30 years. Their contribution would extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund by four years.


Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes annually. Households headed by unauthorized immigrants paid $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010. This includes $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.2 billion in property taxes, and more than $8 billion in sales and excise taxes. Immigrants—even legal immigrants—are barred from most social services, meaning that they pay to support benefits they cannot even receive.

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