Illegal immigrants aid Texas by $18b

Illegal immigrants aid Texas by $18b
9:28 PM
"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.