For undocumented immigrants, a graduated income tax may even out a system they pay into but rarely benefit from.
By Paco Alvarez
Undocumented immigrants and their advocates say the tax amendment would help provide more services without raising tax rates on most people. (Photo: Flickr/peoplesworld)
Undocumented immigrants are in a unique position when it comes to the proposed tax amendment that’s on the ballot in Illinois.
“Whether it's like sales tax or income tax or whatever, [we] are paying taxes just like everyone else,” said Diego Salinas, a 24-year-old actor protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.
And yet they’re unable to vote on this referendum, which proponents say would force the rich to pay their fair share, reduce the tax burden on low-income earners and allow more funding for the social services, including the ones that immigrants use.
In legal terms, the proposed amendment will allow lawmakers to replace the state’s flat income tax with a progressive tax system where people making higher incomes pay higher tax rates. Opponents argue it will scare away businesses, which could ultimately lead to even higher taxes.
Immigrant advocacy groups hope the change (which is estimated to add about $3.1 billion in state revenue) will ensure enough funding for social services that immigrants rely upon. That includes translation services, citizenship assistance and aid for undocumented immigrants.
Through his work as lead organizer for the HANA Center, a non-profit that serves the Korean immigrant community in Chicago and relies on state funding, Youngwoon Han has also advocated for expansion of Medicaid to undocumented seniors. “Without expanding state revenue through the ‘fair tax,’ those programs would not exist anymore … It is the immigrant community members themselves [who] would suffer,” said Han.
Ineligible for federal benefits, undocumented immigrants have depended on state and locally funded relief efforts to stay afloat in a pandemic and economic recession that has cost many their jobs.
Salinas, who moved to Chicago last Thanksgiving, lost his source of income this spring due to the pandemic. “I was kind of doing different side hustles: I started running D&D games for money, I was applying to grants and mutual aid that helped me cover my rent and stuff,” he said. Luckily, he found a steadier job this summer, but he recognizes that others in his position are still looking for help.
Salinas became aware of Illinois’ tax amendment over the past few months from ads on TV and the blue pamphlet distributed to households by the state. “As I understand the ‘fair tax’ amendment, it would make it so that people from lower incomes won't have to pay the same rate as millionaires and billionaires,” he said.
READ MORE: Tax Amendment Explainers in Spanish, Chinese and Arabic
Another undocumented immigrant living in the Chicago area felt similarly. City Bureau is withholding her name for privacy reasons. This 33-year-old woman was laid off from her cleaning job early in the pandemic and didn’t qualify for pandemic stimulus checks due to her status. “I think [the tax amendment] would be beneficial, for schools, for communities ... for a lot of things that we don't have enough funding for,” she said, adding that she found it frustrating how much of the tax burden in Illinois rested on lower- and middle-income households.
Most of her knowledge of this issue comes from social media and a workshop led by the Chicago Teacher Union’s campaign. “I volunteered to do phone banking for them two times, just calling people to make sure they vote for the ‘fair tax,’” she said.
Brenda Bedolla, a 28-year-old DACA recipient from Cicero, campaigned for the tax amendment as a fellow with United Working Families. At her current job working in a health care workers’ union, she makes sure union members know the benefits of voting yes. “Our members are the people that are paying a large bulk of taxes right now. And when we talk about the systems of inequality, the taxation system is one of the systems that's not meant to protect regular working-class people,” she said.
She continues campaigning for the tax amendment on her own Facebook, where she sometimes encounters pushback from people arguing that higher taxes on high earners will cause businesses to leave the state and the local economy to suffer. “Those are all arguments that to me are not necessarily valid,” she said. “It's kind of like a toxic relationship, in my opinion, like you're threatening me to leave if I ask you to do something that you should be doing because it's the right thing to do.”
A common feeling between the three immigrants was their frustration with the oft-repeated myth that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes. “We’ve been paying taxes all our life … [but] we didn’t qualify for the stimulus check or anything like that,” said the 33-year-old phone banking volunteer.
Bedolla pointed to the irony that many of the same politicians who wrongly claim undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes will take advantage of the system themselves. “The same people that are always getting attacked for leeching off from the system are the same people that are paying more in taxes than Donald Trump is,” she said.
Salinas hopes that the extra revenues from taxing the highest earners in Illinois will trickle down into social services for everyone. “One thing I believe very passionately is that public transportation should be free,” he said. “And I feel like that could be very easily financed by reasonable taxes on millionaires and billionaires in Illinois.”
Despite not being able to vote, all three immigrants have found other ways to participate politically. “Every time I can help phone banking, whatever—I get out, I help. I’ve been helping for the last three elections on Election Day,” said the 33-year-old woman, adding that she’s not alone. “Mostly millennials, or DACA recipients that are undocumented—now that they realize that there's other ways to engage in the elections, they’re doing that.”
Salinas found hope in the work undocumented activists do outside the electoral system, whether through community organizing or volunteering in mutual aid programs. “It always seems to be the people who are disadvantaged [who] are the first ones who want to step up and help their community,” he said.
Lynda Lopez contributed reporting.
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