Report outlines migrants' impact on NJ

Cites economic power of wages, taxes paid

By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A new report aims to show the earning and spending power that immigrants wield in the Garden State, as heated dialogue around immigrates fuels the coming presidential election.
..... The report, release Monday, [04/15/2024] said every thousand immigrants entering New Jersey earn a combined $21 million in wages the first year and pay $1.8 million in state and local taxes.
..... And in fie years,, that same group of people will likely earn a combined $33 million in wages and contribute $2.9 million in state and local taxes.
..... The report was prepared jointly by New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive think tank, and the New York City-based Immigration Research Initiative, a nonpartisan think tank.
..... The study comes as immigration more broadly becomes a hot-button issue going into the 2024 presidential election.
..... Both former Presented Donald Trump, a Republican, and President Joe Biden, A Democrat, visited the southern border with Mexico over the winter to tout their immigration agendas.
..... Trump, for example, claimed that many migrants are dangerous and 'coming form prisons," despite research that shows the contrary to be true.
..... He referred to "Biden migrant crime" and blamed the current president for allowing millions of people to come into the U.S. from other countries.
.... Meanwhile, for months Republican Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has gone ahead with his border initiative known as Operation Lone Star using the National Guard in a move setting him up against the Biden administration.
..... Six out of 10 Americans felt immigration was a "very serious problem," Monmouth University said in a February [2024] poll. a slim majority -53% - said they supported a "wall" along the southern border with Mexico.
..... Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murry called immigration "a defining issue this president election year."

Immigrant workforce

,,,,, New Jersey has roughly 2 million immigrants among its 9.3 million residents, officials state figures show.
..... As of 2018, 1.4 million immigrants made up 29% of New Jersey's labor force, said the left-leaning American Immigration Council.
..... The Immigration Research Initiative, in another study released last year, [2023] said immigrants account for 17% of the U.S. economic output, also known as the gross domestic product.
..... In the Monmouth poll, 62% of people in the U.S. felt that immigrants primarily took jobs "Americans don't want."
..... "New immigrants are quickly entering the workforce, providing for themselves and strengthening the economic vitality of their communities," said Marleina Ubel, a policy analysts at New Jersey Policy Perspective and a co-author of the Monday [04/15/2024] study.

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