What U.S. would lose if we sent everyone away

BENEFITS AND COSTS

The impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy.

• 8.1 million: illegal immigrants

• $1.8 trillion: annual spending, U.S.

• $220.7 billion: annual spending, Texas

• $652 billion : annual contribution to U.S. GDP

• $27 billion or more: * the costs of education, health care and incarceration in six states, including Texas

Sources: The Perryman Group;

The Greater Houston Partnership, Houston's pre-eminent coalition of businesses and corporations commissioned a study that confirms that undocumented immigrants bring huge benefits to the U.S. and Texas economies. The study is showing the liability of undocumented people is in the billions, however their contribution is in the trillions.

Just so you will know the importance of the GHP, here is a little information.

The Great Houston Partnership statement on it's web page:

"If the Greater Houston Partnership were a Fortune 500 company, the $1.92 Trillion in combined annual sales and other receipts of its board of director firms would exceed the Gross Domestic Products of all but the top six nations of the world"

GHP's members and supporters include:

AT&T

British Petroleum

Center Point Energy

Chevron

Chase

Conoco/Phillips

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May 19, 2008, 10:40PM
Price put at $1.8 trillion
Study: That's what U.S. would lose if undocumented immigrants vanished

Houston Chronicle

By JENALIA MORENO

If the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who cut lawns, bus tables and perform other jobs disappeared overnight, the nation's economy would lose nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

Texas, the second-hardest-hit state after California, would lose 1.2 million undocumented workers and $220.7 billion in expenditures.

These are just some of the findings from a study done by the Perryman Group, a Waco-based economic analysis firm, whose work was commissioned by Americans for Immigration Reform, a group spearheaded by the Greater Houston Partnership.

Houston's business community is trying to revive the politically charged immigration reform debate that has stalled in Congress. It plans to raise $12 million by December to fund a campaign for reform and thus far it says it has raised about 10 percent of that goal in pledges.

The government has recently increased enforcement, with raids at work sites and plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But getting rid of all undocumented immigrants would hurt, not help the economy, Charles Foster, an immigration attorney and chairman of Americans for Immigration Reform, said Monday.

"If you do that, you would have serious economic upset," Foster said.

He said immigration reform needs to give employers a method of hiring immigrants legally.

"We need comprehensive reform that looks at our needs and addresses those needs," said Ray Perryman, president of the Perryman Group, which examined data for 500 sectors of the economy, Census Bureau surveys and other data to arrive at its conclusions...

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