...among the unfortunate myths that have gathered media attention is that immigrants are a net cost to U.S. taxpayers -- that is, that they use more government benefits than they contribute in taxes.

This notion is being sold in particular by the Heritage Foundation, which once favored liberal immigration but now is pitching a study by Robert Rector [link]claiming that households headed by low-skilled immigrants use $89 billion more in government services than they pay in taxes...

Even Mr. Rector concedes that "immigrants with a college degree become positive fiscal contributors from the outset; the taxes they pay will exceed the benefits their families receive." Raising the number of H-1B visas for computer scientists, mathematicians and other skilled immigrants should be an easy call...The debate is over the impact of the lowest skilled immigrants...

First, of the estimated $19,588 of government benefits collected by low-skilled immigrant households each year, $8,462 -- or 43% -- are the cost for educating children. This leads to a strange logic. Under the Heritage cost-benefit framework, children are financial burdens to society and the surest way to balance the budget would be for Americans to stop having kids.

...Mr. Rector...counts the costs of educating these children of immigrants but he fails to count the taxes they pay as adults. This is a major oversight because scholars have consistently shown that the children of immigrants tend to be the highest achievers and earners of all generations...

Mr. Rector also reports that the average low-skilled immigrant household collects $4,891 in Social Security and Medicare annually. But even conceding his figures, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. Retiree benefits are financed by the payroll taxes of current workers. Immigrants subsidize Social Security and Medicare because they pay taxes for 30 or 40 years without any parent collecting a monthly benefit check. This provides a one-generation net windfall -- an insight first pointed out in a 1984 study by the late economist Julian Simon and published by . . . the Heritage Foundation.