Report: One in 10 Immigrants in California's Workforce Illegal

One out of every 10 immigrants in California's workforce are in the United States illegally, a new report reveals, and in Los Angeles, a full 1.1 million immigrants out of the 4.4 million immigrants in the city are not in the country legally.

Researchers at the University of Southern California, conducting the study in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy center, however, also found that the illegal workforce contributes $130 billion annually to the state's gross domestic product. In Los Angeles alone, illegals contribute $57 billion to the GDP.

Further, the immigrants are "deeply embedded" in the state's "labor market, neighborhoods, and social fabric," USC sociology professor Manuel Pastor, a co-director for the school's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, told The Los Angeles Times. 

Illegal immigrants make up 38 percent of the agriculture industry and 14 percent of the construction industry statewide, and nearly three out of every four of them live in homes that include U.S. citizens.

But about 58 percent do not have health insurance, and about half have been in the United States for at least 10 years.

The numbers parallel a Pew Research Center nationwide study released Wednesday that shows at least half of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States for at least 13 years, and as many as four million immigrants have children who were born in the United States and are citizens.

Immigration advocates say immigrants add to California's economy and should be able to stay in the country, and Gov. Jerry Brown last month said that all Mexicans — whether in the United States legally or not — are "welcome in California."

“Every one of California’s immigrants helps shape our state’s economic and civic vitality,” Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, told The Los Angeles Times. She called for President Barack Obama to act immediately to limit deportations and "honor these contributions and advance economic prosperity."

However, opponents say the figures about the immigrants' portion of the gross domestic product do not account for the costs incurred by taxpayers.

"A bigger economy doesn't mean the people are richer," said Steven Camarot of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors more immigration restrictions.

The Pew study, meanwhile, reveals that unauthorized immigrants have "lengthier ties to the U.S. than those in the past," Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew's director of Hispanic research, told The Washington Post. 

The Obama administration has deported more than two million immigrants since he began his presidency, The Arizona Republic reported in April, and those deportations are leading to fears in the immigrant community that they'll have to leave the country after being in the United States for several years.

The number of undocumented immigrants has leveled off since 2008, and was estimated at 11.3 million in 2013, the Pew study found.

The immigrants' ties become deeper the longer they are in the country. Between 3.5 million and four million immigrants are parents of children born in the United States, making the children automatically citizens.

As part of his planned executive order on immigration, The Post reports, Obama is also considering giving such parents temporary deportation relief, much like his 2012 "dreamer" program for immigrants brought into the country illegally while young.

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