An illegal immigrant in Arizona has made a social media stir by showing the world that she pays taxes, in a recent Facebook post. However, while the post may have given some fuel to open-borders keyboard warriors, it doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
Belen Sisa — an illegal immigrant, DACA beneficiary, left-wing activist, prior Bernie Sanders volunteer, according to her Facebook account, and volunteer at the 2016 Democratic National Convention — has created a buzz by posting about her tax return Sunday night, which shows Sisa holding up a blank 1040 tax form.
It reads:
MYTH BUSTER: I, an undocumented immigrant, just filed my taxes and PAID $300 to the state of Arizona. I cannot receive financial aid from the state or federal government for school, I cannot benefit from unemployment, a reduced healthcare plan, or a retirement fund. I think I’m a pretty good citizen. Oh and there are MILLIONS just like me who pay into a system they will never receive anything from. Wanna tell me again how I should be deported, contribute nothing and only leech off this country while the 1% wealthiest people in this country steal from you everyday? How about you show me yours Donald J. Trump? #HereToStay
There are two big problems with the post.
The idea that illegals generate more in revenue than they take out in services is a popular one among the open-borders crowd, but not one that’s entirely supported.
As Conservative Review Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz explained in his cost-benefit analysis of a border wall:
Now consider the cost savings of each illegal alien inhibited from entering the country. According to a conservative estimate by Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, for every illegal alien that returns home (or is prevented from crossing the border), taxpayers save $700,000. That means we would reach the break-even point after preventing just the first 8,500 illegal immigrants from crossing. Moreover, the cost of other assets that don’t work or are manipulated by the political management will surpass the cost of the border fence. Having the fence as a force multiplier will decrease the need for other assets.
According to the rest of the cited Heritage analysis, the approximately 3.7 illegal households in the U.S. end up imposing a total fiscal burden of $54.5 billion per year. Once the total cost is calculated, Sisa’s touted $300 to the state of Arizona doesn’t even begin to cover it, nor does similar revenue from the other roughly 12 million illegals who may or may not pay income taxes.
Then there’s the question of justice. Fiscal analysis aside, we are a country like any other, and have borders, sovereignty, and laws. While it’s unfortunate that children are caught in the net of their parents’ lawbreaking and the state of their home countries, that is not the fault of American citizens.
Even if revenue from Sisa and others were enough to offset the total cost of illegal immigration, nothing gets around the fact that she and other illegal aliens are breaking federal law. The reason that she was able to so brazenly flaunt federal law in a manner such as this is that she is a beneficiary of an unconstitutional Obama-era program that the Trump administration has yet to rescind.
Think before you share, folks; facts don’t care about your Facebook points.
Source: The real story behind that illegal immigrant’s blank tax form