Phoenix – Rep. Tony Rivero joined business and industry leaders Thursday to showcase new research on the contributions of immigrants in Arizona and highlight the critical need for immigration reform. Spearheaded by New American Economy (NAE), the event marks the launch of Map the Impact—a campaign to highlight the power of immigrants in communities across the country.
The report found immigrants in Arizona are a $21.4 billion economic engine, paying more than $5 billion in taxes to federal, state and local governments. The report provides data from a 2014 study highlighting approximately 920,000 immigrants who lived in Arizona at the time.
“Immigrants add billions of dollars to Arizona’s economy and remain an integral part of our business community,” Rivero, R-Peoria, said. “Immigrants not only perform important duties in several industries but they are entrepreneurs employing tens of thousands of Arizonans across our state.”
NAE provides new data on immigrant populations in all 435 congressional districts, including the nine in Arizona, and 50 metro areas. Featured in an interactive map that also includes state- and sector-specific data, NAE’s quantifies every locality’s foreign-born population, tax contributions, spending power, home ownership, and voting power, among other items.
“Our economy needs to be strengthened,” Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio said. “Maintaining the status quo is untenable and the time is now more than ever to bolster our workforce and economic shortfalls as workers legally work in America, pay taxes and contribute to our economy.”
In Arizona, Map the Impact found:
– There are 921,000 foreign-born residents who make up 14 percent of the state’s population.
– More than 60,000 immigrated to Arizona between 2010-2014.
– More than 60,000 immigrants are self-employed and generated $1.3 billion in income.
– Foreign-born workers make up 22 percent of all business entrepreneurs
– Immigrants contributed more than $2.6 billion to Medicare and Social Security
– 62 percent of crop production is done by immigrants and while 49 percent of landscaping workers are immigrants.
“The New American Economy report shows how important immigrants are to Arizona’s economic health,” RIvero said. “In Arizona, like many states, you cannot separate our economy from immigration, nor the politics that go with it. As a conservative Republican, I believe our policies on immigration are feckless unless we acknowledge the $21.4 billion contribution immigrants make to Arizona’s economy.”
