Integration: Not Deportation. the Cost to California

 Guest column: The real question is integration of undocumented immigrants, not deportation

Jamshid Damooei   https://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/2024/09/21/guest-column-the-real-question-is-integration-of-undocumented-immigrants/75282530007/

We should applaud the Biden Administration for taking a significant step toward helping long-term undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens and 50,000 undocumented stepchildren of citizens become permanent legal residents. This brings hope to many undocumented immigrants and their families.

However, many Californians — and Americans as a whole — are leery. They blame undocumented immigrants for all the economic and social problems they face, ranging from unemployment to low wages and a surge in crimes. What they might not know is how their lives and economic well-being are intertwined with the lives of undocumented immigrants. California is a shining example of this.

Every Californian shares the benefits of undocumented immigrants’ contributions and is responsible for their well-being. Unfortunately, there’s a common belief that undocumented immigrants have taken advantage of unsecured borders and do not belong in this country.

Reality cannot be further away from such a perception.

According to the Immigration Policy Institute, in 2019 there were more than 2.7 million undocumented immigrants in California. Of these immigrants, about 72% have lived here over 10 years. This begs the question: How long does it take to call a place home?

Some 28.3% of Latino residents of California live with people who are labeled “undocumented.” For Asian residents, it’s 12.8%. Nearly 14% of California residents are connected with the lives of undocumented immigrants in the state. According to the latest information from the California Immigration Data Portal of the Equity Research Center of the University of Southern California, in 2021, 28% of all Latino children under 18 years old lived with undocumented parents. The percentage for all children in California was 17. This makes clear that what we are doing to undocumented immigrants, we are doing to our children and the future of our state and the nation.

Undocumented immigrants’ contribution to the labor force and working population is remarkable, yet seldom discussed in policy debates. In 2021, 41% of all agriculture workers were undocumented; this only formed 14.5% of all working undocumented immigrants in California. It defies the common perception that all undocumented immigrants are either in agriculture or household services.

Focusing on Los Angeles County, which has approximately a quarter of the state’s population, 28.7% of construction workers were undocumented immigrants, 17.5% manufacturing, 16% whole trade and 15.4% retail trade.

Imagine California’s economy, the fifth largest in the world, if all the undocumented immigrants were deported. Think about the significant proportion of our children whose parents and relatives were deported. This impact would cripple California.

People who are against immigration may not realize that their work and economic well-being heavily depend on the work of undocumented immigrants.

This segment of our population generates around $152 billion in value added within the state economy, or 4.9% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). according to a February 2024 study by the Center for Economics of Social Issues (CESI) at California Lutheran University. Adding the indirect impact (supply chain business-to-business value added) and induced (value added stemming from household spending of labor income) the total value added reaches $298.5 billion or 9.6% of total GDP in 2019.

Think about that.

Through the work of undocumented immigrants, 1.25 million additional jobs were created within the state. This same study shows that California’s undocumented immigrants, paid, in total, some $22 billion toward various tax channels. Setting aside the contribution by employers toward Social Security, approximately $17.5 billion is paid by the undocumented immigrants themselves. Let us not forget that employers’ contributions are based on the employees’ work.

Of this amount, about $9.3 billion has been paid as Social Security by them and their employers — which they will never see a dime of because of their immigration status. In addition to Social Security, undocumented immigrants pay many of the same taxes but are not eligible for many benefits — including refundable tax credits, Pell grants, student loans and nutrition programs. This is happening across the United States, where they are, in essence, financially supporting the nation’s citizens.

Unfortunately, many Americans overlook these realities. A path to citizenship will increase productivity and wages — not just for those eligible for legalization, but for all workers — and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and increase tax revenue. This pathway would boost the U.S. GDP by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion (with a T) over 10 years and create 438,800 new jobs, according to a 2021 study by the Center for American Progress, in collaboration with the University of California and Davis’s Global Migration Center.

Let us look forward to a day when undocumented immigrants have a clear path to becoming permanent legal residents, not only for their sake but also for the state’s and country’s economy.

 

Jamshid Damooei, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Center for Economics of Social Issues and director of the undergraduate economics program at California Lutheran University.