DALLAS -- The Texan economy would have been almost $18 billion poorer in the last fiscal year without illegal immigrants who added to state coffers but were a drain on local government, says a report by the state comptroller.
The report - billed as the first detailed look by a state at the impact of undocumented immigrants on its budget - is likely to stir further debate on the emotional issue of illegal immigration in the United States.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the United States had 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in 2005. Of these it said Texas accounted for between 1.4 million and 1.6 million.
Many Americans say illegal aliens - mostly from Mexico - take jobs from locals, depress wages and commit crimes. But many businesses say they fill a much needed gap in the labor market.
"The absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal 2005 would have been a loss to our gross state product of $17.7 billion," said Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.
The report says that would be a loss of 2.1 percent to the state's gross domestic product, which is the broadest measure of all goods and services produced in the state.
"Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received. However, local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state," Strayhorn added.
The net increase to state revenues came from payments such as sales taxes and user fees.
The report says removing illegal migrants from the state would lead to a tighter labor market and higher wages.
"Without the undocumented immigrant population, Texas' workforce would decrease by 6.3 percent. . . . The most significant impact would be a noticeable tightening in labor markets," the report says.
"This tightening would induce increases in wages. . . . While pay increases can be viewed as a positive social and economic development, when they rise due to labor shortages they affect economic competitiveness. In this case, it would be expressed as a modest decline in the value of Texas' exports," it adds.
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