Opinion: LA’s immigrants are hiding, leaving a hole in the economy

An ICE officer detains a worker at a carwash in Downey Photo courtesy OnScene TV This column was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters In immigrant-rich Westlake in Los Angeles stores were empty on Friday morning The computer repair place was closed Gates were down in front of a check-cashing operation One of the area healthcare clinics where residents often line up for curative care was open but without takers A block away MacArthur Park still stirred with drug addicts and unhoused men Police arrested two cuffing them as the men stared into the distance Around Los Angeles flower sellers who congregate outside Forest Lawn were missing buses were running half empty car washes were closed Parking lots at Home Depots and garden stores were suddenly noticeably vacant This is what happens when the federal cabinet against the wishes of those who live in a region exercises its distant authority and imposes a answer Los Angeles residents don t want Confrontations in a small area of downtown escalated after the arrival of the National Guard and then of active-duty U S Marines And Los Angeles large productive and now very afraid society of undocumented immigrants has slipped into the shadows There are a multitude of misconceptions about immigrants in Los Angeles but none more disorienting than the canard so popular among Trump administration representatives that those immigrants who arrived without papers somehow live apart from the rest of the city The role of these immigrants in the local economic system is widely misunderstood and deliberately misrepresented Undocumented immigrants do not work outside the larger economic system they are integrated into it just as they are into every other aspect of life in California When they are removed or are cowered into staying home the effects touch everyone The impact on the financial system is broader announced Saba Waheed director of UCLA s Labor Center They federal officers are uprooting and interfering in the daily life of Los Angeles You re taking away part of our workforce That is hurting LA more broadly That s in part because of the close integration of illegal immigrants into the broader economic system and not just in Los Angeles In California undocumented workers make up about a quarter of all farm laborers and construction workers When Arizona adopted anti-immigrant laws in the early s a great number of undocumented residents perhaps as countless as left The business sector suffered And unemployment for low-skilled white men increased not decreased That makes perfect sense to all but the closed-minded or hard-hearted Saul Mu oz waits for any job opportunities in front of a Home Depot in San Diego on Jan Photo by Adriana Heldiz CalMatters Whether here legally or illegally these are working men and women When they get paid they spend that money on clothes and places to live toys for their children food and the stuff of life That spending goes into the broader financial market supporting businesses that are owned and operated by legal residents Restaurants and stores that depend on business from those in the country illegally suffer right along with those immigrants Trump supporters starting with the president s shrill emissary Stephen Miller like to counter with crocodile tears for illegal immigrants who they suggest are an exploited class of workers while simultaneously calling them an ominous criminal threat And though it is certainly true that specific undocumented residents are paid lower wages than citizens several are not casualties but have been comfortably working for years Indeed nearly of those living illegally in this country have been working here for more than a decade Miller and his fellow travelers suggest that this is all a drag on the economic activity a burdensome expense But that too is false In addition to the economic activity they generate undocumented workers pay taxes using taxpayer identification numbers plenty of pay federal income taxes Others share housing often with documented family members and help pay property taxes A large number of of these workers have Social Safeguard money withdrawn from their paychecks but since they are using fake Social Precaution numbers they never get the benefits at the other end which means they help prop up that system for others And of discipline they pay sales taxes which are especially vital to local governments California s undocumented workers contribute billion a year in federal state and local taxes Their direct pay alone amounts to of the state s market a new scrutiny shows Pulling them out of the workforce either to send them out of the country or chasing them indoors to avoid detection hurts not just them It hurts Los Angeles In fact if deportation enthusiasts got their fondest wish it would hurt the entire country One examination concluded that if the cabinet succeeds in deporting every person now in the country illegally it would upshot in a drop in Gross Domestic Product in the first year with losses rising thereafter The commercial sector would shed more than trillion Those are studies And then there is life in the city Los Angeles like any city would welcome the removal of dangerous people But that s not who s being grabbed Immigrants in the country illegally tend to be more law-abiding once here than native-born Americans California National Guard soldiers stand with shields outside the Federal Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters Under Trump more than of those seized in these disruptive raids have no criminal record at all and numerous more have only minor traffic or other offenses All described about of those snatched by ICE in up-to-date months have serious criminal histories That means more than out of gave no evidence of being a threat Removing them separates families devastates businesses and damages the larger commercial sector with no corresponding benefit to the safety of this group You don t snag criminals by raiding car washes and Home Depot parking lots Washington may not get that or may not care But Los Angeles does If those who are behind the fresh immigration raids imagined that they were excising an unwanted detached area from the rest of Los Angeles they badly miscalculated Instead this region has demonstrated resolve and solidarity in the face of a threat that is not just economic but cultural as well Churches with large immigrant congregations are advising their parishioners to stay home rather than expose themselves to ICE Hotels and businesses are flying Mexican flags in solidarity with their workers Activists and everyday people are refusing to cooperate when masked agents who themselves refuse to provide identification demand it of others often merely because of their skin color The city of Pasadena hardly a hotbed of radicalism cancelled summer swim and park programs last weekend for fear that ICE would use them to snag persons of interest Those actions prove a point These immigrants however they arrived or whatever their legal status are integral to this region s economic system and to its sense of self These are our neighbors our friends the friends of our children our coworkers Forcibly removing them is bad for them of lesson It s also bad for the rest of us CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable Want to submit a letter to the editor guest column or opinion piece Find our guidelines and submission form here