BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The Texas Comptroller’s Office does not study the impact undocumented immigrants have on the Texas economy, Comptroller Kelly Hancock has confirmed.
Hancock confirmed his office does not track the contributions of immigrants during a visit to Brownsville on Feb. 3. He gave a “Fiscal Futures Briefing” at a luncheon hosted by Brownsville Chamber of Commerce.
In the Q&A portion of Hancock’s address, veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock asked: “As Comptroller of Texas, you crunch all the numbers, right? I was reading the other day a study by a professor at UT-San Antonio. He says the number of immigrants being deported is and will have a negative impact on the Texas economy. Has your office analyzed this, sir?”
Hancock responded: “We have not analyzed this. That's not really an area that we do, on those types of numbers. What numbers we have, we provide them and are transparent with them. But that's not a data we've been asked for or provided.”
The study Whitlock was referring to was conducted by Rogelio Sáenz, a professor of sociology and demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sáenz said he was concerned that mass deportations of immigrants by the Trump administration would have a negative impact on the U.S. economy.
“The U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates demonstrate that the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation has led to plunging growth rates in the population of the nation and almost all states. The greatest declines in immigration have disproportionately occurred in Blue states where Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential election,” Sáenz wrote, in a column for The Latino Newsletter.
“The population slowdown is not over. Notably, the 2024-2025 data capture only the first six months (January to June 2025) of Trump’s mass deportation operation. The number of deportations and people being held in detention centers has increased since then, and all signs point to rising numbers.”
Sáenz continued: “Given the importance of immigrants to the growth of the U.S. population and workforce, their declining numbers do not bode well for the coming years. With a major aging of its population alongside, declines in birth rates, the U.S. is poised to sustain even slower growth and eventual population decline. The impact will be felt throughout the country and all of its institutions.”
The last Comptroller to study the impact of immigrants on the Texas economy was Carole Keeton Strayhorn in 2006. Her report found that immigrants contributed more to Texas than they cost the state.
Since then universities and think tanks have studied the subject.
In 2016, The Perryman Group estimated that the net direct economic benefit of undocumented immigrants was $326.1 billion per year, while the cost was $144.7 billion. Adding the multiplier effects, the Perryman Group found that the net economic effects were $663.4 billion, while the costs were $290.3 billion.
In a study in 2020, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy found immigrants have a net positive impact on the Texas economy. José Iván Rodriguez-Sánchez, a research scholar at Rice, studied the issue. He wrote:
“This report strengthens the argument of those who would advocate for allowing them to stay in the United States, under certain conditions. The Texas case demonstrates that they add more than they take from the economy. In effect, undocumented residents have a positive influence and impact on the economy, since they pay taxes and fees and constitute an important part of the labor market.
“Even if we consider the costs of undocumented immigrants to the state of Texas, the benefits outweigh the costs. These costs are mainly in education, health care, and imprisonment—though imprisonment is nearly a choice of the state itself.
“This report estimates that the revenue collected from undocumented immigrants exceeded what the state spent on them, resulting in a net benefit of approximately $420.9 million in fiscal year 2018. This means that for every dollar spent on public services for undocumented immigrants, they provide $1.21 in fiscal revenue for the state of Texas.68
“The economic impact analysis reinforces this, since the deportation of all undocumented workers would create a loss of $171.9 billion in the GSP.”
