Ricardo Chavira Chicano

Approximately 27.3% of all agricultural workers in the U.S. were undocumented in 2019.

For crop production specifically, 36.4% of workers were undocumented in 2019.

In some states, the percentages are even higher. For example, in California, 40.9% of agricultural workers were undocumented in 2019.

2. Economic Output:

• Undocumented agricultural workers are vital to the U.S. agricultural sector, which contributed $1.055 trillion to the U.S. GDP in 2020, with $134.7 billion coming just from farms2.
• The agriculture, fishing, and forestry industries contributed more than $175 billion to U.S. GDP in 2020.

3. Tax Contributions:

• Undocumented immigrants, including those in agriculture, pay billions of dollars in taxes annually.
• In 2010, households headed by unauthorized immigrants paid $10.6 billion in state and local taxes, including $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.2 billion in property taxes, and more than $8 billion in sales and excise taxes.

4. Labor Market Impact:

• Undocumented workers, including those in agriculture, often fill jobs that are difficult to staff with domestic workers
• Their presence helps maintain the viability of U.S. farms and agricultural operations, which might otherwise struggle to find sufficient labor.

5. Consumer Spending:

• After taxes, undocumented immigrants (including those in agriculture) have significant spending power that goes back into local economies for housing, consumer goods, and services.

6. Social Security and Medicare Contributions:

• While not specific to agricultural workers, undocumented immigrants from Mexico alone contributed $11.7 billion to Social Security and $2.8 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund in 2019