Deportations could devastate New Mexico's economy

[TexasTowelie]

If the undocumented immigrant population in New Mexico disappeared, the state could lose tens of millions of dollars each year in federal money and local taxes.

That’s according to estimates from the state’s de facto demographer, Robert Rhatigan, associate director of the University of New Mexico’s Geospatial and Population Studies. Rhatigan regularly crunches the numbers on state population and serves as the principal consultant for federal officials on U.S. Census Bureau surveys.

Federal funding for everything from Medicaid to education, transportation and housing grants is based on 10-year U.S. Census Bureau surveys of each state’s population. Those surveys are based on gross numbers that ignore nationality and immigration status.

There are no current official numbers on undocumented immigrants in New Mexico. But the Pew Research Center estimates that about 85,000 people – more than 90 percent of them from Mexico – illegally resided here as of 2014. That represents about 4 percent of the total state population, giving New Mexico one of the top 10 highest ratios for undocumented immigrants nationwide.

Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/976498/deportations-could-devastate-nms-economy.html

[comradebillyboy]

1. At the rate NM is losing population

Susana ought to be encouraging in migration to stimulate the local economy.