WASHINGTON STATE – As President Donald Trump acts on his campaign promises to deport immigrants living without proper documentation, concerns are rising about the economic impact on vital programs like Social Security.
A new report highlights the potential risks to Social Security and other programs that rely on payroll tax revenues. With America’s baby boomers retiring, the number of U.S.-born workers is expected to significantly decrease over the next decade.
In Washington, an estimated 344,000 undocumented people paid nearly $1 billion in state and local taxes in 2022. Josh Bivens, the report author and chief economist with the Economic Policy Institute, emphasized the importance of immigrant workers.
“It does make things like Social Security and Medicare a little harder to sustain,” Bivens stated. “If we have a steady flow of younger immigrant workers coming in, that just makes it much easier to sustain those really important social insurance programs.”
Medicare and Social Security are primarily funded by current workers through payroll taxes, regardless of their immigration status. According to Social Security trustees, the program will not be able to pay full benefits after 2036.
The Trump administration aims to deport 1 million immigrants each year to secure borders and jobs for U.S.-born workers.
