Today, Tuesday, Apr. 18, is the 2017 tax deadline in the United States. This is the first tax deadline under the Trump administration, which had a strong impact on the Internal Revenue Service's tax collection, but not in the way many anticipated. During his electoral campaigns, President Trump demonized immigrants by claiming they threaten national security and that they enter the country as freeloaders, never contributing to their community and definitely not paying taxes. He, therefore, promised that by strengthening border control and deporting undocumented immigrants from the US, citizens would enjoy more benefits from the taxes they paid, since they would stop sustaining immigrants' expenses.

It turns out that undocumented immigrants can pay taxes without needing to present a Social Security number. Instead, they are allotted Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) through which they can pay taxes and file tax returns. Immigrants have numerous incentives to pay taxes, such as possible tax deductions and showing they are positive members of their community, in case they are detained in immigration court or working to obtain citizenship.

4.5 million ITIN users paid taxes in 2015, and they paid a total of $24 billion in taxes last year. They make an important contribution to the United States' government revenue, but this is starting to change. In the San Francisco Bay area, there has been a 20% decline in the number of ITIN users paying taxes from 2016 to 2017. Immigrants are no longer fueled by the hope of one day becoming US citizens. Instead, they are scared that giving the IRS their current address and personal information may result in deportation, possibly separating millions of hard working people from their families, livelihood and opportunities.

Trump's aggressive attack on immigrants affects all taxpayers since undocumented immigrants' discontinued tax participation will result in a loss of government revenue, increasing citizens' tax burdens. Antagonizing undocumented immigrants helps nobody. It creates an overwhelming culture of hatred while scaring immigrants into doing exactly what they are being accused of, not paying taxes. There must be a more humane way to tackle the few issues undocumented immigration does bring to the United States than labeling all immigrants as lazy, greedy criminals.

Before Trump accuses hardworking immigrants of hurting their communities and refusing to pay taxes, he should prove that he does not do that himself by releasing his long overdue tax returns.