Revitalizing the Golden State: What Legalization Over Deportation Could Mean to California and Los Angeles County
California is home to 10 million immigrants, more than one-quarter of the state's population. Of those, 2.7 million are undocumented, and the majority have been living in the USA for more than 10 years. California's immigrant contributions to the Golden State cannot be overstated: from Cesar Chave (labor rights leader) to Sergei Brin (Google).
Still, that reality has not prevented some Californians to call for an Arizona-style "papers please" approach. The threshold question they have failed to answer, however, is whether this goal serves the state's economic interests.
As it related to Arizona, this report finds that the economic and fiscal consequences of widespread deportation for California and L.A. County would be even more devastating than in Arizona. The analysis demonstrates that undocumented immigrants don't simply "fill" jobs—they create jobs.
Hinojosa-Ojeda, .l and Fitz, F. (2011). Revitalizing the Golden State: What Legalization Over Deportation Could Mean to California and Los Angeles County. Washington DC: Immigration Policy Center.