Immigration reform advocate Mary Moreno, spokewoman for Center for Community Change, explains why advocates are delivering blank tax forms to the office of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, on Tax Day.(Abby Sewell/MNS)
WASHINGTON – As hundreds of Tea Party protesters shouted anti-tax chants on the streets of Washington Thursday, a small band of immigration reform advocates brought an unexpected message to the Capitol on Tax Filing Day: “We Love Taxes.”
After carrying signs proclaiming their “love” for taxes, the advocates from the Reform Immigration for America coalition delivered boxes containing several thousand blank federal income tax forms to the office of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, in hopes of convincing her to put her name on a comprehensive immigration reform bill this spring.
The forms were intended as a symbol of the billions of tax dollars advocates say the nation would gain by offering a path to legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The action was part of a push by advocates to get a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate this month.
Reform Immigration for America spokesman Martine Apodaca said Hutchison was a natural target in the push for Republican support.
“Senator Hutchison is a senior senator from Texas, the state with the largest border, and has, frankly, worked on some of these issues before and should be a leader on this,” Apodaca said.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid out a loose framework for immigration reform in March. Their plan included a combination of legalization for illegal immigrants already in the country and stepped-up enforcement to stem future violations. With high-profile Democrats, including Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, supporting the proposal, advocates have focused on finding a second Republican co-sponsor.
Hutchison was not in her office when the advocates arrived, and her staff declined to comment.
Outside of Washington, immigration reform advocates planned Tax Day rallies at post offices in Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati and San Francisco.
Mary Moreno, a spokeswoman with Center for Community Change, which is part of the immigration reform coalition, said the actions were a counterpoint to the Tea Party protests nationwide.
“You have a bunch of people who come to D.C. to protest paying taxes, to protest our government, so what we’re doing is celebrating that we can pay taxes, that we can have interactions with our government and get it to hear us,” she said.
Determining the actual effect of legalization on the public coffers is a difficult task. Experts on both sides of the debate said that about 50 to 60 percent of illegal immigrants currently pay federal taxes. Estimates vary widely on how much tax revenue would be gained through legalization, however.
A study commissioned by the Immigration Policy Center and Center for American Progress and cited by immigration reform advocates estimated that legalized immigrants would realize wage gains that would generate an additional $4.5 to $5.4 billion in net tax revenues in the next three years. The study based its estimates on data from formerly illegal immigrants who were legalized under a 1986 reform act.
On the other hand, studies by Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that opposes a legalization program, found that the increase in tax revenues from newly legalized immigrants would be more than offset by the increase in their use of public services as more people became eligible. Steve Camarota, director of research for the center, estimated a fiscal drain of up to $29 billion a year after legalization.
“The skilled illegal immigrants would significantly improve their income and tax contributions (after legalization), but most illegal immigrants are unskilled,” he said.
A third point of view was put forth in a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California, which concluded that most illegal immigrant are already filing taxes and that legalization would have little impact for either good or bad on public finances. The report’s methodology has been criticized by both pro- and anti-immigration groups.
Reform advocates are planning another round of large-scale rallies on May 1.