San Antonio’s Migrants: Impact on Our Economy
Immigration continues to be a major issue of concern, nationally, but especially for Texas
and our own community. Unfortunately, a great deal of misinformation makes it difficult to
have a meaningful dialog on the topic.
We tend to forget that about 300,000 foreign-born people are our friends and neighbors
right here in San Antonio. Most have lived here for fifteen years or more. They make up
about 12% of our population but 15% of our workforce. Twenty-one thousand are
entrepreneurs, and 69,000 are homeowners. The Census Bureau estimates that they had a
combined income of $6.5 billion in 2016. From that income, they paid $500 million in state
and local taxes and $1.1 billion in federal taxes. They contributed $4.9 billion in local
spending power. Immigrants are a vital part of our local, state and national economies1.
Read on to find out how those contributions have increased.
The rate of growth in our native-born workforce has slowed. With the retirement of the large
baby-boom generation, the proportion of native-born people in the workforce is
declining. Immigrants have taken up the slack. The senior economist of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Dallas put it bluntly: “You can’t grow like this with just the native
workforce. It’s not possible.”2
Our immigrant neighbors may be naturalized citizens. They may be legal long-term
residents. They may be here on a short-term visa. They may be awaiting the adjudication of
their claims for asylum. And some may be undocumented.
The undocumented are a particular source of angst, misinformation, and distortions. One
of the most prominent bits of misinformation is that immigrants are taking our jobs. As
noted previously, immigrant workers, including undocumented workers, are important to
the success of our economy. The unemployment rate for native-born workers is the lowest
it has been since 20013. When have you heard someone complain that they lost a really
good job picking vegetables to an immigrant?
Another often heard statement is that undocumented immigrants just come here to sign
up for welfare programs and become a drain on the taxpayers. In fact, the undocumented
are not eligible for nearly all such programs. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,
Supplemental Security, Cash Assistance, etc., are not available to undocumented people.
The only state benefits available to undocumented immigrants are emergency services
and public education. Putting out a house fire before it spreads to neighbors, healing a sick
immigrant in a hospital before he infects his coworkers and contributing to the education
of a child are all things that benefit the entire community.
Related to the above is the assertion that they pay no taxes. A recent study by the Institute
of Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100
billion in federal, state and local taxes. Texas alone collected $4.9 billion in state and local
taxes from the undocumented. Of the $100 billion collected nationally, $32 billion was in
payroll taxes supporting Social Security and Medicare, two programs from which they are
currently not eligible to receive benefits4.
Some also complain, without evidence, that thousands of non-citizens vote in our
elections. Yet, every creditable study of the issue has found the number of non-citizens
voting to be so small that it can hardly be measured as a statistic5.
Finally, we often hear the claim that immigrants, particularly the undocumented, are all
criminals, who will make us all unsafe. Several studies have looked at the rate of crimes of every sort committed by undocumented immigrants and native-born people. The native-
born population commits crimes at a much higher rate than undocumented immigrants.
These studies include one done right here in Texas of Texans6.
We are not arguing for open borders or unrestricted immigration. We should reform our
immigration system to recognize the needs of our economy and the changes in the world’s
population. We should also recognize that immigrants coming here, documented and
undocumented, are coming for the same reasons that most of our forbearers came. They
want to build a better life for themselves and their families. And, in doing so, they are
contributing the economic health of our community.
References:
1. https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/safe-network- profiles/legacy_downloads/profile-foreign-born-population-san-antonio.pdf
2. Siegel, Rachel, et al. The Washington Post, February 27, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/27/economy-immigration-border-biden/
3. https://www.epi.org/blog/immigrants-are-not-hurting-u-s-born- workers-six-facts-to-set-the-record-straight/
4. Davis, Carl, et al. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants. https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/
5. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/politics/undocumented-immigrants-voting-what- matters/index.html
6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/29/truth-about-illegal-immigration- crime/