Campaign Action
The seven Republican-led states suing the Trump administration over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program aren’t just engaged in a politically-motivated stunt: they also stand to lose hundreds of millions annually in state and local tax revenue, and billions in annual gross domestic product (GDP) if they successfully end protections for the 134,000 young immigrants who reside in those states.
The seven states suing the Trump administration stand to lose an estimated $369 million annually in state and local tax revenue they currently receive. Texas would lose the most at $313 million in revenue annually.
Texas is home to the second-largest U.S. population of DACA recipients and their tax contributions help keep the state running, yet indicted Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has been hell-bent on ending their protections. Last year, he threatened to sue if the Trump administration didn’t end the program, and then went through with the threat this past May.
But “despite Paxton’s repeated efforts to end DACA, appetite to end the program has dwindled.” Ten states initially joined the threat, a huge drop from the 26 that sued the Obama administration in 2014 over a program that would have protected the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. By the time Paxton did sue over DACA, only Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia joined him.
It’s simple—a majority of Americans support legalization for young undocumented immigrants because it’s the right thing do to. A number of courts have also sided with DACA recipients—partially resurrecting the program so they can keep renewing their protections—and a discharge petition in the House is just three signatures away from bypassing Speaker Paul Ryan and forcing a vote on immigration:
DACA has not only been a popular and useful program for the recipients who benefited from it, but repeated polls show that a majority of Americans support DACA. In fact, nearly 87 percent of Americans and 79 percent of Republicans favor “allowing immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children” to remain in the United States.
But instead of helping push forward legislation, seven states would rather kick these young people out, and kick themselves in the teeth in the process. “In total, the seven states that are part of the lawsuit would lose an estimated $6.9 billion in annual gross domestic product loss by kicking DACA recipients out of the labor force in the respective states. The bulk of these losses would be concentrated in Texas, which stands to lose $6 billion from its annual GDP”:
Through their employment, DACA recipients are contributors to their localities and states as wage earners and taxpayers. A 2017 state-by-state study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that the 1.3 million young undocumented immigrants receiving and immediately eligible for DACA contribute significantly to state and local taxes at an estimated $2 billion every year.
But it’s about more than just dollars and cents, and tax contributions, and GDP. These young people know no other country but this one as their home, and they—and their families—deserve permanent protections so they can keep thriving here. “Paxton’s anti-immigrant political attacks aren’t about the rule of law,” said Mario Carrillo, Texas organizer for America’s Voice, “but rather about crushing the futures of Texans whose only desire is to continue contributing to the state and the country they call home.”