Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo emphasized the significant contribution of Mexicans living in the United States to that country’s economy, pointing out that only 20% of their income is sent to Mexico as remittances, while 80% remains in the U.S. through savings, consumption, and tax payments.
During her morning press conference “The People’s Morning Briefing,” Sheinbaum stressed that migrants are not a burden but active contributors to U.S. economic growth. According to the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), in 2024, Mexicans in the U.S. contributed $781 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—a figure that would rank them as the tenth-largest economy in the world if they were an independent nation.
Sheinbaum called for greater recognition of the migrant community’s importance, both in Mexico and in the United States, to counter the discourse of criminalization and misunderstanding about their crucial role in U.S. society and economy.
Ana Ramírez Valdéz, Director General of the LDC, explained that migrants complement the workforce in essential sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and construction. She highlighted that immigrants have a 60% lower crime rate and make a significant entrepreneurial contribution, with one in five entrepreneurs in the U.S. being an immigrant—representing $95.6 billion in business activity in 2021.
Ramírez Valdéz also pointed out the lack of positive representation of Mexicans in U.S. media, despite making up 16% of the U.S. population, a situation that fosters myths and negative stereotypes.
Finally, President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirmed her administration’s commitment to making the contributions of the Mexican migrant community visible and supporting their indispensable role in the economic and social development of the United States.
