GRAPEVINE (WBAP/KLIF)- North Texas business leaders join a discussion hosted by the North Texas Commission on immigrant economic contributions.
Jeremy Robbins Executive Director with New American Economy organization presented a study that shows the almost 1.4 million legal and undocumented immigrants are working labor intensive jobs and contributing billions of dollars in local and federal taxes.
“They are coming here to work so 85% are of prime working age and they are working in industries that are hugely important to the region so almost have of construction workers, 30% on tourism and STEM jobs,” Robbins said.
He said undocumented immigrants pay about a billion dollars in taxes and they fill jobs that help our economy. “It’s a complete misconception to think that if we get rid of the whole immigrant population that those jobs will be filled by Americans quite to the contrary, huge industries would be devastated I the North Texas region if all of a sudden there were no immigrants,” he said.
Some argue they take jobs away from Americans but he says they actually help create them. “There are 100,000 immigrants that are entrepreneurs in the region and they’ve started companies that make 3 billion dollars income and that’s creating jobs, revenue it’s adding dynamism and it’s making this community more vibrant,” he said.
Robbins said he also sees both sides and agrees there needs to be policies in place to have undocumented workers accounted for and to contribute more in taxes.
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