Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent Residency and the Income Tax after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 -- by Elizabeth U. Cascio, Ethan G. Lewis

We explore how permanent residency affects the income tax using variation from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which authorized the largest U.S. amnesty to date. We exploit the timing and geographic unevenness of IRCA's legalization programs alongside newly digitized data on the income tax in California, home to the majority of applicants. Green Cards induced the previously unauthorized to file state income tax returns at rates comparable to other California residents. While the new returns generated little additional revenue through the end of the 1990s, they did raise the earnings of families with children through new claims of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.