In our spotlight on Business Report tonight, a deeper look at the economic impact of President Trump's immigration policies, especially in a state like New Jersey, which is home to one of the largest immigrant populations in the country.

Economic studies show foreign born workers account for roughly 30% of the state's workforce.

That's far higher than the national average of 18%.

And some analysts argue the economy here wouldn't survive if those workers were to suddenly go away.

To help explain, I'm joined by business and finance writer John Reitmeyer.

John, good to see you.

Let's talk a little bit about the numbers to get into this.

How many undocumented immigrants are in New Jersey and how much on a monetary scale do they contribute in tax revenue?

Good to be here and good questions.

So credible estimates tell us that there are more than 425,000 undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey and that these residents contribute more than 1.3 billion annually in state and local tax contributions.

And so when we talk about that, that they're paying the sales tax and the sales taxes, the largest single source of revenue for the state budgets general fund.

They're also indirectly paying property taxes through their monthly rents.

And then they would be paying things like the gas tax, which helps to maintain our roads and bridges in New Jersey.

And a lot of these residents, due to the nature of being undocumented, are not drawing the level of services that natural born residents would be drawing because they're typically sort of laying low.

And so maybe not necessarily taking on the full suite of government services that a natural born resident would.

So one analyst you spoke with say, you know, our workforce wouldn't survive.

Is that true?

Are these jobs that wouldn't then be able to be made up by native born citizens?

Yes.

So there's this idea that there's tension between an immigrant and someone who was born in New Jersey and that they might be competing for the same jobs.

But what we hear is in many cases, the immigrants are actually filling gaps in the labor market, that we don't have New Jersey residents to fill.

And so we just got new unemployment data yesterday that indicated the state unemployment rate actually declined over the last year, even as we saw a big surge in immigration, including at the US-Mexico border.

And there's been a lot of national research that suggests the contributions from immigrants actually help to keep down the rate of inflation, including wage growth, and kept the state the nation from tumbling into a recession last year.

Can you stay on that for a moment?

Because an argument we often hear is that undocumented immigrants in particular suppress wages.

They take jobs at lower pay and thus keep the wages lower than they would be if they were taken by citizens and especially in areas lower skilled areas.

And I'm thinking about agriculture, construction.

Can you walk us through that argument and the facts there?

Sure.

And so whether you have a hard line position on immigration or maybe are more middle of the road, when we look at these economic effects, it's sort of dollars and cents.

And so there's also a component of this that's on the consumption side, right?

So there are a lot of immigrants who are here documented or undocumented, who are big consumers in our economy.

And so most of the analysis would suggest it's a net benefit to the to the economy.

We also hear anecdotal evidence from people who are in certain sectors in New Jersey, let's say nurseries and landscaping, hospitals, child care that really rely heavily on immigrant labor.

And when you talked about the percentage of the labor force in New Jersey that the immigrant community occupies in some northern counties, it's up above 40%.

And so that's where you hear these analysts speak about what would the economy in New Jersey look like if immigrants suddenly went away.

And how would these local and state governments make up for that that lost.

Revenue?

It's a really big question.

I mean, we have to put it in context, right?

The state budgets, almost a $60 billion annual spending plan, 30 to 40 billion is contributed annually through property taxes in New Jersey.

So it's a maybe a small percentage, but when you're talking about a billion, more than a billion, that would be a hit on the state budget and any community as well.

John Reitmeyer, our budget and finance writer, I think I said business at the top there.

You can look at his full piece on this on our website, NJ SpotlightNews.org.

John, thanks.

You're welcome.