Immigration Pays Off—For Americans!

Rachel Joy Larris

December 12, 2006

Every time TomPaine.com runs an immigration article we get a host of e-mails from readers that say, “But illegals cost us taxpayers money for services they don’t deserve!” Here’s a study that contradicts that assumption. The Texas comptroller says immigrants contributed billions to Texas’ economy and that state revenues collected from undocumented immigrants far exceeded what was spent on services for them.

Migra Matters  has the rundown on the study:

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn was quick to point out that this was the first time any state agency in the country presented "a comprehensive financial analysis of the impact of undocumented immigrants on a state’s budget and economy, looking at gross state product, revenues generated, taxes paid and the cost of state services."

The report titled "Undocumented Immigrants In Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy" found that “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. Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received."

And Migra Matters points out specifically that the problems with health care are not caused by the undocumented immigrants.

As healthcare professionals are quick to point out, the problem of uncompensated care is systemic and not limited to the undocumented. Studies show that the undocumented generally utilize health services at a much lower rates than legal residents and that the chief causes of increasing rates of uncompensated costs are the ever increasing numbers of uninsured coupled with limited payment schedules of government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.