NORTH TEXAS IMMIGRANTS - A new report finds that immigrants have played a big role in keeping the North Texas economy thriving. The report is from a group called New American Economy, which describes itself as a bipartisan research and advocacy group that focuses on immigration policies. The report says that 1.3 million immigrants live in North Texas, that's about one-quarter of the region's working age population. Jeremy Robbins is the group's executive director.
"Their impact is enormous economically. They pay more $10 billion dollars - 10 billion with a B -- dollars
in state, local and federal taxes just in the North Texas region.," explained Robbins. "And it means they have more than $30 BILLION DOLLARS in spending power that they're injecting back into the economy."
These immigrants are also buying homes - more than 300,000 in North Texas. Robbins says the report finds that more than 85 percent of the foreign-born population in North Texas is of working age -- that's compared to 61 percent of North Texans born in the U.S.
Robbins said "If you really want to get a sense of why immigration is good for this community is that when people are voting with their feet, when they're deciding where they're going to make a better life to contribute to the economy, you want those people to come there."
The report also looks at the economic impact of undocumented immigrants in North Texas, more than 575,000 live in the region and in 2017 they paid nearly $500 million dollars in state and local taxes.
