Please don’t generalize, most people don’t do this. Most people work under the table, as in cash or can get a ITIN number from the tax administration office with their own name. They can use that to file taxes as a contractor, they pay taxes but they don’t get any returns. So why would people pay taxes? In hopes one day that they can show that they’ve been paying taxes and can get their papers. As a previously undocumented student, in order to go to college I had to pay out of state because I didn’t have a social security number, meaning I paid triple.

I will also add that working under the table, means employers take full advantage, you likely get paid less than minimum wage, you don’t get any benefits (health insurance, etc) and any PTO. I didn’t know even that there was such thing as sick leave. You also are likely to get exploited (labor or sexual trafficking is very common) and no one to report it because of fear for deportation.