A June report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute found that, based on their wage contributions to the economy alone, undocumented workers generate nearly 5% of California’s gross domestic product. That proportion rises to 9% when ripple effects of their labor are added.

With 2.28 million undocumented immigrants living in California, they represent 8% of workers in the state. And the population has deep roots, with nearly two-thirds having lived in the state for over a decade. Their total contribution in local, state and federal taxes is $23 billion annually, according to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

If California’s undocumented workers were erased from the economy, researchers calculated the state’s agricultural industry would contract by 14% and the construction industry would shrink by nearly 16%. The study projects a loss of $278 billion to California’s economy as the upper figure of the financial damage.