The Trump and Abbott administrations continue to target Texas’s immigrant communities for profiling and discrimination. But if the population of undocumented immigrants declines, so will Texas’ economy.
A newly released economic impact study by AngelouEconomics found that undocumented workers comprise 8.5% of the Texas workforce. In a span of 10 years, Texas would take a $78 billion loss to its GDP with the removal of most of the undocumented immigrant population.
A few other highlights from the study:
- AngelouEconomic also found that in total, undocumented immigrants contributed $2.7 billion to state revenues in 2017. That number is higher than the $2 billion burden on the state, returning $1.34 for every dollar the state put in.
- Texas is home to an estimated 1.65 million undocumented immigrants. Policies which seek to remove them would weaken industries that rely on undocumented workers and consumers. In total, Texas would forego 875,000 jobs over the next ten years in industries such as construction, hospitality, and retail if undocumented immigrants are removed from the state.
- Historically, immigrants are nearly twice as likely to be entrepreneurs compared to native-born citizens, and employ 1 out of 10 private sector workers, which make them important drivers of economic growth. Laws like SB4 will damage the perception of Texas among perspective legal immigrants and thus lower Texas GDP further.
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