I first encountered the idea of disruptive empathy through the work of scholars Bashir and Goldberg, whose writing on peacebuilding emphasizes the moral necessity of humanizing those we are taught to fear or dismiss [1]. Disruptive empathy names the moment when our assumptions, stories, and beliefs are interrupted, often by information or lived experience that contradicts what we thought we knew. People who have been framed as threats, burdens, or abstractions are humanized, and we begin to see them through a more honest and empathetic lens.

Businessman and writer Nate Anglin posed the question in an essay, “Is Disruptive Empathy The Cure For Most Conflict? I Think So.” I think he may be right. Disruptive empathy matters because so much of our immigration debate relies on flattened and emotionally charged narratives. Public attention is often inflamed by rhetoric that frames immigration as an “invasion,” a “bloodbath,” or even as “poisoning the blood of the country.” Within that climate, labels like “illegal immigrant” do more than describe legal status; they quietly imply criminality, even though research consistently shows that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, commit crime at significantly lower rates per capita than U.S.-born citizens and contribute positively to the economy [4].

Additionally, when we look closely at how immigration law actually functions, the idea that immigration status is a simple personal choice collapses. Being in the United States legally or illegally is far from a black-and-white distinction. These situations typically reflect prolonged delays, shifting rules, and bureaucratic uncertainty rather than any intentional violation of the law. In practice, legal precarity is often produced by policy design and administrative inefficiency, not by people seeking to “take advantage” of the system. The irony is that many of those labeled “illegal” are instead absorbing the costs of that dysfunction through low wages, limited protections, restricted access to public programs, and years of tax contributions made without corresponding security.

Below are just a few examples of common immigration situations that rarely fit into a simple legal or illegal binary. I invite you to read them as an exercise in disruptive empathy: slow down, set aside familiar assumptions, and consider how easily legal categories can obscure the human realities they contain. Many people in these situations are navigating a system with complex rules, shifting policies, delays and limited pathways that often leave people in legal limbo despite sustained efforts to comply.

Victims of Human Trafficking or Domestic Violence (T and U Visas): Special visas are available for victims of human trafficking (T visa) and victims of crime or domestic violence (U visa). However, obtaining these visas involves a lengthy and complicated application process, leaving applicants without legal status for significant periods.

Immigrants with Pending Immigration Applications: Many undocumented individuals are actively pursuing legal status and have cases pending with immigration authorities. The process can stretch on for years, with no guarantee of approval, leaving people in prolonged legal limbo. “Pending” can refer to very different legal situations, including cases before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or in immigration court, each with its own procedures and risks.

Immigrants in Humanitarian Programs: “Legal entry” does not equal secure status. Some individuals are allowed to temporarily enter the U.S. due to urgent situations (e.g., family emergencies or medical needs). They do not gain permanent status and often must leave the U.S. when the time period expires unless they adjust their status. Remaining lawfully often depends on receiving a timely decision from the government on a separate application, something that is frequently delayed.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Holders: TPS is granted to people from countries facing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. It allows individuals to live and work in the United States while return remains unsafe. But “temporary” often lasts for decades, with renewals issued one year at a time and no path to permanent residency, leaving people to raise children, work, and contribute to society while being under the constant threat that protection could suddenly end.

Awaiting Visa Renewal: For many people, maintaining legal status depends on leaving the United States to renew a visa or waiting for approval while remaining inside the country. Both options can involve months or years of uncertainty, lost income, separation from family, and real safety risks abroad, with no guarantee the visa will be renewed. When visas expire under these conditions, legal precarity is often the result of delay and system design, not disregard for the law.

Asylum Seekers Awaiting Processing: Asylum seekers enter the United States seeking protection from persecution, a right recognized under U.S. and international law. Many then wait years for a hearing while cases move slowly through backlogged courts, living in legal limbo while their safety and futures remain unresolved.

DACA Recipients: DACA protects people who arrived as children and followed requirements placed before them. Despite years of work, education, and community contributions, they remain without a permanent legal future, renewing their status every few years while waiting on political decisions beyond their control.

Undocumented Family Members of Citizens or Residents: Many U.S. citizens or green card holders have family members who entered legally but now face visa expiration. Regaining legal status often requires leaving the United States for years, at great financial risk and sometimes personal danger, while applications move slowly through backlogged government systems with no guaranteed timeline or outcome.

Refugee Applicants in Limbo: Refugees waiting to enter the United States through official channels can remain stuck abroad for years due to backlogs and shifting processing priorities. Some enter the U.S. on temporary visas while awaiting final decisions, but if those visas expire before the government completes its review, they can be left without legal status for extended periods. This situation typically reflects prolonged delays, changing rules, and bureaucratic uncertainty rather than any intentional violation of the law.

People Under Orders of Supervision: These individuals have received deportation orders but are not being actively deported due to various reasons, such as unsafe conditions in their home country. They may be required to check in regularly with immigration authorities but lack “legal” status.

Individuals in Deportation Proceedings: Many people without permanent status spend years navigating deportation proceedings. During that time, some are authorized to work temporarily, while others work out of necessity, supporting families and communities despite ongoing legal uncertainty.

This reality raises an often-overlooked question. Even as we debate who belongs, millions of people labeled “illegal” participate in the economy, paying taxes, and contributing to public systems from which U.S. citizens benefit every day. What often surprises people is the scale of those contributions.

Taxes

Most people are unaware that “undocumented” immigrants contributed an estimated $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Of that total, $59.4 billion went to the federal government and $37.3 billion to state and local governments.

These contributions include payments into programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance, totaling $25.7 billion, $6.4 billion, and $1.8 billion respectively. 

A common question is how undocumented immigrants can pay taxes at all. The answer is simple: many use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). Even in cases where wages are reported under Social Security numbers that are not their own, federal and state taxes, along with Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance contributions, are still withheld from those wages and paid into public systems. U.S. citizens benefit from those contributions, even when the workers themselves never will.

It’s also true that some undocumented workers are paid off the books. Even then, their labor still lowers costs, fills essential jobs, and supports industries that U.S. citizens depend on, while the workers themselves remain largely excluded from workplace protections, safety nets, public benefits, and long-term security. Like everyone else, they also pay sales and excise taxes on everyday goods such as food, clothing, rent, and gasoline, contributing to public revenue regardless of immigration status.

Taken together, this labor and consumption is part of a much larger economic picture. Immigrant labor overall contributes nearly $1 trillion annually to U.S. GDP, with undocumented workers making up a significant share of the workforce in essential industries such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality [2].

Additionally, the Center for American Progress further estimates that placing undocumented immigrants on a pathway to citizenship would increase U.S. GDP by up to $1.7 trillion over the next decade, raise wages for U.S.-born workers, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs [3]. 

Taken together, the legal pathways, delays, and lived realities described here reflect common conditions faced by millions of people navigating an immigration system marked by chronic delays, administrative dysfunction, shifting rules, moral inconsistency, and unpredictable outcomes. Disruptive empathy asks us to sit with an uncomfortable truth: no one chooses legal precarity as a first option. That position carries serious risk, including reluctance to report crimes or sexual violence, vulnerability to exploitation and wage theft, barriers to health care, and the constant threat of family separation.

At the same time, people living in fear and limbo are also working, paying taxes, and contributing to the economic and social life of the United States. The question, then, is not simply who belongs, but what kind of system depends on people’s labor while keeping their lives unstable, and what it reveals about a society when human beings are reduced to a single word: illegal.

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Notes

[1] Bashir, B., & Goldberg, A. (2014). Deliberating the Holocaust and the Nakba: Disruptive empathy and binationalism in Israel/Palestine. Journal of Genocide Research, 16(1), 77-99.

[2] The “nearly $1 trillion to GDP” is widely referenced in public discussions about immigrant economic contributions. It is an aggregate estimate for immigrant labor broadly (both documented and undocumented).

[3] Peri, G., Zaiour, R. (2021). Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants Would Boost U.S. Economic Growth. Center for American Progress. 

[4] U.S. Department of Justice. (2025). Undocumented Immigrant Oending Rate
Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate.

Hannah Boyke, H., Iniguez, Y. (2024). Immigrants Do Not Commit More Crimes in the US, Despite Fearmongering. American Immigration Council.

Rumbaut, R. (2008). Undocumented immigration and rates of crime and imprisonment: Popular myths and empirical realities. In Invited Address to the “Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties: The Role of Local Police” National Conference, Police Foundation, Washington, DC.

Other Sources

American Immigration Council. (2025). New Data: Immigrants Keep Economy Strong, As Congress Considers Wasting Billions on Mass Deportation. 

Appleby, K. (2024). The Importance of Immigrant Labor to the US Economy. Center for Migration Studies.

Nate Anglin, N. (2022). “Is Disruptive Empathy The Cure For Most Conflict? I Think So.” Medium.

Bush-Joseph, K., Meissner, D. & Chishti, M. (2021). Breaking the Cycle of Dysfunction at the U.S. Immigration Courts. Migration Policy Institute.

Davis, C., Guzman, M. & Sifre, E. (2024). Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 

Hubbard, S. (2024). Immigrants Contribute Billions to Federal and State Taxes Each Year. American Immigration Council. 

Kissam, E. (2026). The Two Million Deportation Myth: How Aggressive ICE Enforcement Distorts Immigration Data. Center for Migration Studies. 

Lisiecki, M., Apruzzese, G. (2025). The Role of Undocumented Workers in High-Growth Occupations and Industries Across the United States. Center for Migration Studies. 

Shepperson, A. (2024). Immigrants Are Key to Filling US Labor Shortages, New Data Finds. American Immigration Council. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). Victims of human trafficking: T nonimmigrant status. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). Victims of criminal activity: U nonimmigrant status. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). Temporary Protected Status. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): Frequently asked questions. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). Affirmative asylum eligibility and applications. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (n.d.). USCIS policy manual: Lawful immigration status. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.