Nearly 1 in 10 California Workers are in Country Illegally, Study Finds
Photo Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times
A Report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product.
The study, which was conducted in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center, was based on census data and other statistics, including data from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security. It looked at a variety of ways the estimated 2.6 million immigrants living in California without permission participate in state life.
Among the study’s findings:
*Immigrants who are in California illegally make up 38% of the agriculture industry and 14% of the construction industry statewide.
*Half of the immigrants in the state illegally have been here for at least 10 years.
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Photo Credit: AP
By Brittany M. Hughes.
Seventeen-year-old Cristian stepped through the swinging wooden door separating the crowded waiting area from the judge’s bench, straightening his slightly-too-big dress shirt as he slid behind the defendant’s desk. As his lawyer took the seat beside him, Cristian slipped on the court-provided headphones so he could hear the Spanish-speaking translator as his lawyer began to speak.
After a few pleasantries, Cristian’s lawyer told Immigration Judge John M. Bryant that his client conceded to the charge of being an undocumented alien in the United States and was subject to potential removal. Cristian wanted to plead for asylum for “protection from torture,” and “declined to state his country of removal at this time,” the lawyer added.
Within a minute, Bryant had accepted the plea and scheduled a hearing in which the court will determine if Cristian is eligible to receive asylum. The date was set for June 11, 2018.
“Are you available that day?” Bryant jokingly asked the lawyer.
“I don’t have my 2018 calendar in front of me, but yes, I believe so,” the lawyer responded.
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