New York State has 670,000 residents who are illegal migrants – including 42,300 undocumented restaurant employees and 48,500 undocumented construction workers, an eye-opening report released Thursday said.
The report from the liberal-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute revealed an underground economy of migrant workers in the Empire State, where 1.8 million residents are non-citizens that may also include green card holders.
In total, there are 4.5 million foreign-born residents of the state, the report said.
The data in the report — released as President Trump vows a crackdown on illegal immigration — revealed:
- An estimated 51,200 illegal migrants work in the personal care industry — with 20,900 maids and housekeepers, 16,800 home health aides, 7,000 child care workers and 6,500 personal care aides.
- Some 42,300 restaurant workers are believed to be undocumented — 7,000 chefs, 17,000 cooks, 9,100 food prep workers and 9,200 waiters.
- Another 48,500 undocumented workers are part of the construction industry — 29,500 laborers, 12,800 carpenters and 6,200 painters.
- Over half of all crop workers in the US are foreign-born, and the vast majority of them are either undocumented or enrolled in an employer-sponsored federal H-2A program to work here.
The institute fears mass deportations by the Trump administration would have a “devastating impact” on the state’s economy.
And the report warned that even non-citizens here legally are also in the crosshairs as Trump eyes restrictions on legal immigration as well as well as sealing the border.
“The immigrants most vulnerable are those who are undocumented,” the group said in its report.
“But the impact does not end there.
“People who have temporary visas may see them terminated or unrenewed,” the report claimed.
“People with temporary protected status, asylum seekers, DACA [Deferred Action for Child Arrivals] recipients, and many others are also in a precarious position.”
Massive raids would disrupt and potentially cripple key industries and have a ripple effect through New York’s economy and communities, the report said.
Removing crop workers could lead to closures of dairy and fruit and vegetable farms upstate, where agriculture is a top industry, including a growing wine sector, according to the institute.
“Eliminating immigrants from farm work would be nearly unimaginable, and reducing the number of immigrant workers by even five or ten percent would have dramatic negative consequences,” the report concluded.
But advocates for stricter immigration policies dismissed the talk of economic doomsday, noting that a large undocumented workforce could drive wages down across the board.
“The labor market in New York would need some time to adjust to a sudden decrease in immigrants, but adjust it would,” Jason Richwine, a resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies, said in a Post column.
Richwine said employers and government officials would be forced to focus on employing struggling Native American workers. Companies may be forced to offer more competitive wages.
“Cutting down on illegal immigration would save New York taxpayers some of the money they must contribute toward federal programs such as Medicaid, as well as toward the various state welfare benefits,” Richwine said.
The report counters that illegal migrants and non-citizens are a net plus, not drain on New York and the US.
In 2022, illegal immigrants paid an estimated $3.1 billion in state and local taxes, the report said.
In addition, the report noted that an influx of refugees has helped to rejuvenate and reverse population declines in the upstate cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Albany.
“State and City leadership must oppose the implementation of deportation policies that could have a devastating impact on New York’s immigrant communities and its economy,” said Nathan Gusdorf, director of the Fiscal Policy Institute.
“In addition to their human cost, these policies could remove hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the workforce, causing New Yorkers to lose access to essential services including child care and home care, and pushing up the cost of construction during a historic housing shortage.”
New York has been forced aside billions of dollars to aid illegal immigrants, including creating a $2.1 billion “Excluded Work Fund” during the COVID-19 pandemic to aid undocumented jobless workers not eligible for unemployment insurance.
New York City and Albany also also spent billions of dollars since 2022 to aid more than 200,000 migrants who arrived from the southern border.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $252 billion spending plan released Tuesday estimated there are 471,000 undocumented workers in New York State, which had an overall population of just under 20 million as of the latest census estimates.
The report estimates that within the overall population there are 68,000 people in New York with Temporary Protected Status seeking asylum from Venezuela, Haiti and elsewhere — as well as 21,000 active DACA recipients, and 62,000 asylum seekers currently in New York City-funded shelters.
There have been 215,000 who have passed through the city’s processing system since spring 2022, according to the institute.
The impact of Trump’s stricter policies are already being felt, immigration advocates said.
“Immigrants are a vital part of New York, so it is no surprise to see the drastic impact the proposed Trump Administration policies will have on our state,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of Immigration Research Initiative.
“Heartbreaking stories are already emerging of immigrants being separated from their families and their communities, and those separations are going to have negative consequences for all of us.”
