UCLA report highlights Latinos’ surging contributions to US economy

The economic impact of American Latinos increased by over 60% from 2010 to 2022, according to a report from UCLA released last week.

The yearly United States Latino GDP study found that, independent from the rest of America’s gross domestic product, U.S. Latino GDP would be the fifth-largest economy in the world — ahead of India and the United Kingdom, among others.

More than 28% of Nevadans, including nearly a third of Clark County residents, are “Hispanic or Latino,” according to 2020 Census data. Of the one-fifth of Nevadans born outside the country, around half immigrated from Mexico, El Salvador or Cuba.

Peter Guzman, president of the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce, said the rapid increase in Latino GDP followed what he has seen in the local community.

“These folks come from countries that are very chaotic, very unprepared. And what it does is it forces people to figure it out,” Guzman said. “Then they come here with that kind of attitude, that work ethic, and yet, there are services here that they didn’t have in those countries to help businesses succeed.”

John Tuman, a professor at UNLV and author of “Latin American Migrants in the Las Vegas Valley,” says Latinos make significant contributions to industries concentrated in Clark County, such as hospitality.

Over 30% of immigrants in Nevada work in service occupations, according to the 2023 American Community Survey. Nevadan immigrants are also more likely to work in construction and transportation than their native-born counterparts.

More than half of the 60,000 members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226 are Latino, Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said.

“It’s about workers being able to have job security, health care … and the ability to own a home and get their kids to college if they want to,” Pappageorge said of Local 226’s organizing. “That Las Vegas dream is something that we think Latino workers have an opportunity (for) with the culinary union.”

Guzman added that the local government is “business-friendly,” pointing to minimal regulations and speedy business licensing. He also highlighted the work of Latinas in Nevadans.

In August, the same UCLA researchers released their inaugural Latina GDP report finding the U.S. Latina GDP rose from $661 billion in 2010 to $1.3 trillion in 2021.

David Hayes-Bautista, a co-author of the report, said that the daughters and granddaughters of immigrants are starting to replace the Latinas aging out of the workforce.

“Older immigrant Latinas are starting to age out of the workforce, and their shoes are being filled by their U.S.-born daughters and granddaughters,” Hayes-Bautista said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The global economy is still recovering from the crisis created by the global pandemic — something that hit Clark County’s Latino community especially hard. “Hispanic or Latino” people made up nearly half of the county’s COVID-19 cases while only being 29% of the population, according to a 2021 pandemic recovery plan.

Even still, Guzman said that Latino-owned businesses “did about as good as you can under the circumstances” in showing their resiliency and contributions to the economy.

Those contributions are often overlooked, Tuman said, because of the anti-immigration rhetoric that some residents have mistakenly latched onto.

Those inaccuracies have been magnified by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s presidential election who has long spewed that Mexico was sending the United States the worst of the worst.

Many GOP candidates and elected officials align with Trump’s false claims.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said in 2015 when announcing his launch into politics. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research called the tie between immigration and crime “mythical.” It found that first-generation immigrants being incarcerated are 60% lower than people born in the United States.

But Trump would rather stir fear by talking about mass deportation and degrading immigrants, Democrats say.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, blamed Trump during their debate Tuesday for stepping in to prevent a bipartisan immigration and border bill from passing in Congress.

“That bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings, but you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress and said, ‘Kill the bill,’” Harris said.

“You know why? Because he’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

But, as the UCLA report confirmed, the contributions of immigrants are vital to the American economy.

“I hope that the economic contributions of immigrants can (come) to be part of the narrative and the way that we frame and talk about immigration,” Tuman said.

Pappageorge criticized Trump’s promise to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, saying the Republicans’ plan would be disastrous for the country’s economy.

“The one thing that will kill this recovered economy is this idea of mass deportations, closing the border,” he said. “This is the largest economy in the world, and it runs on immigrant labor — it’s a big piece of it.”

[email protected] / 702-990-8923 / @Kyle_Chouinard