New Jersey has one of the nation’s largest undocumented-immigrant populations, and the aggressive federal-deportation policy launched by President Donald Trump in recent weeks has sparked a widespread debate among state and local officials about public safety and human rights.

But a new national study that looks only at the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants suggests New Jersey could be among the states with the most to lose financially if Trump’s new deportation effort starts targeting more than just the very small group of immigrants who pose the most serious threat to public safety and national security.

As a group, New Jersey’s undocumented immigrant population contributes an estimated $587.4 million to the state and local governments via income, property and sales taxes, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That total tax haul ranks sixth-highest among U.S. states, behind only California, Texas, New York, Illinois and Florida, according to the study, which was released this morning.

Gov. Chris Christie’s final budget, outlined yesterday in an address to the Legislature, drew mixed reactions not just from the lawmakers who will soon be vetting it, but also from the gubernatorial candidates vying to be the one who has to live with it on taking office next January.

Some of those legislators and potential candidates are one and the same, but there are also some prominent outsiders running to replace Christie next year. And unlike most instances, when reaction tends to fall along party lines, candidates of both parties had some critical words for the $35.5 billion spending plan and some of Christie’s more controversial and vague proposals.

Gov. Chris Christie put forward a plain-vanilla, $35.5 billion state budget yesterday that calls for no new tax increases or tax cuts, and only flat funding in a number of key areas, including for schools, property tax relief programs, municipalities and colleges and universities.

But Christie, in the final budget address of his two-term tenure, also shook up the State House by floating a series of new proposals along with the new spending plan, including one that would see lottery revenues redirected to the grossly underfunded public-employee pension system. He also called on Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurance company, to voluntarily contribute to his efforts to fund addiction services.

Whether lawmakers will take those proposals and a similarly ambitious call to overhaul the state’s school-aid formula in 100 days seriously as they dig deeper into the budget over the next several months remains to be seen. After the Republican governor’s speech before a joint session of the Legislature yesterday afternoon, Democratic legislative leaders promised only to look more closely at his ideas. Meanwhile, Republicans and business leaders praised Christie as a steady leader on fiscal issues.

As the cost of tuition continues to rise, more and more students across the country are being forced to take out hefty loans to pay for their college educations. In New Jersey, the student-debt issue is a particular concern, with college students here carrying some of largest debt burdens in the country.

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is now trying to help stop New Jersey’s students from being held back by heavy debt after they graduate college by ensuring they receive at least some instruction before they leave high school on the issue of college affordability.

A bill that cleared the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee yesterday would require New Jersey’s current high-school financial-literacy curriculum to be amended to include courses on issues like the student-loan process and tuition-assistance programs. The measure would also require guidance counselors to teach students about how they can save money in the long run by completing courses that will count as college credits before they graduate high school.

Immigrants and advocates concerned about the national crackdown on the undocumented may have a sympathetic ally in legislative Democrats, but it’s doubtful Gov. Chris Christie will support any of their suggestions for protecting those born abroad who consider New Jersey their home.

Testifying to high levels of fear and anxiety among the state’s immigrant communities, a number of lawyers and advocates, as well as two undocumented young people, told an Assembly committee last Friday that the state and local governments should take steps to protect immigrants, or at least turn a blind eye to the recently launched federal crackdown on the undocumented. One even suggested that New Jersey declare itself a sanctuary that refuses to help federal authorities arrest the undocumented.

“You should consider passing a resolution declaring New Jersey a sanctuary state and risk losing federal funds,” the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, a Highland Park pastor whose Interstate-RISE organization recently was approved as a refugee resettlement agency, urged the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Reform and Federal Relations Committee. Kaper-Dale, who is running for governor under the banner of the Green Party, termed the Trump administration’s executive orders and policies regarding immigration “a planned and coordinated attack based on race and ethnicity.”