Price put at $1.8 trillion

Study: That's what U.S. would lose if undocumented immigrants vanished

By JENALIA MORENO

The impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy.

• 8.1 million: illegal immigrants

• $1.8 trillion: annual spending, U.S.

• $220.7 billion: annual spending, Texas

• $652 billion : annual contribution to U.S. GDP

• $27 billion or more: * the costs of education, health care and incarceration in six states, including Texas

Sources: The Perryman Group;
*Federation for American Immigration Reform

If the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who cut lawns, bus tables and perform other jobs disappeared overnight, the nation's economy would lose nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

Texas, the second-hardest-hit state after California, would lose 1.2 million undocumented workers and $220.7 billion in expenditures.

These are just some of the findings from a study done by the Perryman Group, a Waco-based economic analysis firm, whose work was commissioned by Americans for Immigration Reform, a group spearheaded by the Greater Houston Partnership.

Houston's business community is trying to revive the politically charged immigration reform debate that has stalled in Congress. It plans to raise $12 million by December to fund a campaign for reform and thus far it says it has raised about 10 percent of that goal in pledges.

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