Immigration reform vital to protect key programs: Medicare and Social Security

A new study from the Partnership for a New American Economy released data about the contributions of immigrants in Florida. Undocumented immigrants in Florida contribute $211.6 million to fund Medicare and $857.3 billion to the Social Security fund. These funds are crucial to the financial stability of these programs.

With the government already struggling to keep these programs funded, it is reasonable to assume that if mass deportation occurred, the government would have to raise taxes on an already weak economy, cut services to seniors who spent their entire lives contributing to these programs, or allow them to continue down a path toward bankruptcy.

But it isn’t only these funds that benefit from this tax revenue, Florida immigrants contribute $6.4 billion in state and local taxes.

In fact, mass deportation could cost the federal government $600 billion in new government spending to forcefully remove the 11.5 million undocumented living in the United States. Congress has waited far too long to address immigration reform head-on.

Everyone agrees that we must secure our border to crack down on future illegal immigration, but we also must pass legislation that outlines a reasonable and realistic solution to the millions of undocumented already living here. The time has come to fix our broken system and pass comprehensive immigration reform for the sake of our state and our citizens.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Immigration reform vital to protect key programs: Medicare and Social Security."