The Consequences of Legalization Versus Mass Deportation

"In this report we describe the direct impacts of either deporting or legalizing undocumented workers.  In reality, the effects would be much larger.  Mass deportation, for example, would result in an indirect negative impact on local businesses because there would be less money circulating in the local economy, which would lead to further job losses.  The estimates reported here should thus be considered conservative rather than exhaustive.  We estimate the economic contributions of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, for seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Virginia.  These seven states have some of the largest populations of unauthorized immigrants, and have played and will continue to play a pivotal role in elections as swing states.  We then report the negative fiscal impact of four different deportation scenarios—namely what would happen if 15, 30, 50, or 100 percent of undocumented immigrants were removed from the state . Finally, we explore the positive economic outcomes that would result from legalizing undocumented immigrants in each of the seven states." - CAP, Aug. 30, 2012.