![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Calif-workers-678x381.jpg\" "\\"Construction\\"\/")
Photo by Smodj\/iStockUndocumented workers help fund public services, fill essential jobs and generate billions in economic activity, study finds
By Mark Kreidler\/Capital & Main<\/p>\n
Photo by Smodj\/iStock
Undocumented workers help fund public services, fill essential jobs and generate billions in economic activity, study finds
By Mark Kreidler\/Capital & Main<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0repeated attacks on California\u2019s immigrant communities over the past year resulted in\u00a0thousands of deportations<\/a>\u00a0and stoked\u00a0fears of reprisal<\/a>\u00a0among those living in the state without authorization, including families afraid for their children. It\u2019s still unclear how many immigrants ultimately will have left the state, either under threat or of their own volition.<\/p>\n That is a humanitarian nightmare, a Cal Lutheran University professor says. But there is another aspect to consider, he adds: California\u2019s economy simply cannot survive any significant loss to its undocumented worker population.<\/p>\n \u201cEven for people and politicians with no humanitarian instincts at all, they have to respect the economic punishment that will ensue,\u201d said Jamshid Damooei, director of the university\u2019s Center for Economics of Social Issues. \u201cYou cannot imagine certain industries in California without undocumented workers.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, the Cal Lutheran center has tracked the effects of undocumented workers on the state\u2019s economy. Its\u00a0most recent findings<\/a>\u00a0make a compelling argument that those effects are profoundly positive.<\/p>\n Damooei said the center\u2019s research found the direct value of work produced by undocumented Californians to be nearly 6% of the state\u2019s total domestic gross product, more than $236 billion annually.<\/p>\n But the figure swells when it includes indirect and induced spending \u2014 ways that economists measure how much additional business activity and spending that the labor of undocumented immigrants produces, essentially a multiplier effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way to think of it is, this is what the work of undocumented immigrants generates for others,\u201d Damooei said. \u201cThat\u2019s true whether it\u2019s through their labor driving additional business spending or hiring, or supply chain purchases, or the workers\u2019 own spending for their necessities and paying taxes and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n Add those factors, and undocumented immigrants are responsible for nearly $441 billion in economic impact \u2014 more than 11% of California\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n Those are powerful numbers, but perhaps they shouldn\u2019t be surprising considering the size of the undocumented workforce in the Golden State. The center\u2019s research places that number at more than 1.9 million people, out of an overall undocumented immigrant population of between 2.7 million and 2.9 million.<\/p>\n *\u00a0 \u00a0*\u00a0 \u00a0* \u00a0 \u00a0*\u00a0 \u00a0*<\/p>\n If the term \u201cundocumented worker\u201d\u00a0conjures images of a person stooped over in a farm field, you\u2019re not wrong. Nearly half of all agriculture jobs in the state are held by immigrant laborers, Damooei said \u2014 and in places like Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, it\u2019s closer to 70%.<\/p>\n But that image, though compelling, is incomplete. Using information from IMPLAN, the industry standard for economic modeling, Damooei\u2019s work powerfully demonstrates that immigrant labor is propping up multiple industries across the state.<\/p>\n Undocumented workers account for nearly half of what the agriculture industry contributes to California\u2019s GDP \u2014 but also 22% of construction\u2019s contribution, 20% of the retail trade and more than 10% of the wholesale trade, according to Damooei\u2019s research. Manufacturing, transportation, warehousing all depend to a significant extent on the labor of undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n In raw dollars, the numbers are even more striking. Undocumented workers provide $37 billion a year in added value to California\u2019s construction industry, $42 billion to its retail trade, $29 billion in professional services, $23 billion in agriculture, and so on. This is a quasi-invisible workforce producing very tangible results.<\/p>\n The notion of how much in taxes these workers pay is a slippery one, Damooei said, but the amount is substantial. While many immigrants establish individual taxpayer identification numbers to pay the government, others use forged Social Security numbers or fake ID on W-2s, which Damooei called \u201cidentity loan.\u201d Both the federal and California governments accept all such tax payments.<\/p>\n A 2024 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy pegged the total amount of taxes paid by undocumented immigrants in the U.S. at\u00a0nearly $100 billion<\/a>. About\u00a016%<\/a>\u00a0of all such immigrants live in California.<\/p>\n *\u00a0 \u00a0*\u00a0 \u00a0* \u00a0 \u00a0*\u00a0 \u00a0*<\/p>\n That tax aspect of the conversation\u00a0is often lost amid the shouting over documentation status, Damooei said, but it matters.<\/p>\n Much of the tax money paid by undocumented workers goes to support the same services that all Americans\u2019 tax payments support: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and so on. But because of their status, those workers and their families cannot access such government services.<\/p>\n In essence, the workers\u2019 taxes help prop up safety-net systems they can\u2019t use. Even in California, a clearly progressive state, Gov. Gavin Newsom chose to roll back an expansion of Medi-Cal benefits to undocumented residents, citing budget constraints.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line is that the undocumented pay far more in taxes than the benefits they receive,\u201d Damooei said.<\/p>\n That dynamic is set to remain in California for the long haul, too. The Cal Lutheran research shows that of the high-end estimate of 2.9 million undocumented residents in the state, 1.7 million have lived here for 20 years or more. They represent a stable part of the state\u2019s workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s assailing of immigrants, and the ICE raids that have rocked the country since early 2025, may be red meat for some of Trump\u2019s most xenophobic supporters. But as a practical matter in California, chasing undocumented people out of the state isn\u2019t just cruel \u2014 it\u2019s a recipe for economic disaster, Damooei said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese workers are an inseparable part of California\u2019s economy. That is how decisive the impacts are,\u201d the professor said. \u201cThis is who we are \u2014 and what we are \u2014 as a people.\u201d<\/p>\n