TAMPA, Fla. — There are currently more than 40 million immigrants in the U.S. with more than 20% being entrepreneurs that help contribute to the economy, according to the American Immigration Council's Map the Impact report.

The report breaks down the economic impact that immigrants have.

Tony Selvaggio, who owns eSmart Recycling in Tampa, shared his journey and discussed what this information means for the local economy.

The company, which Selvaggio started in 2014, focuses on taking damaged technology and giving it new life.

Everything must go through a process that starts with checking the damage, before it gets to the final point of becoming scrap or something that can be resold. It’s a technique he learned in Venezuela, but instead of technology, he was working with scrap metal in a junkyard.

“Ideally, I wanted to have a mobile scrap yard,” Selvaggio said.

Now, it’s become much more.

“It feels like we’ve come from nothing, but there’s still so much to be done.”

Selvaggio is one of the more than 40 million immigrants in the U.S. who are helping contribute billions to the economy. Those numbers are quantified in the Map the Impact report.

“They’re very important to the state as far as developing and providing money to the state, they also pay taxes,” said American Immigration Council senior data scientist Steven Hubbard.

The report shows in Florida that about 1 in 3 entrepreneurs are immigrants helping provide $13.2 billion of business income to the economy.

Selvaggio has built his business from the ground up and is helping to build wealth in the Tampa Bay area.

“I’m just blessed to be in this country, I’m blessed to be able to navigate the intricacies of growing a business,” he said.

It’s a business he hopes will inspire the next generation of immigrant entrepreneurs.

eSmart Recycling also focuses on community service. So far this year, the company has set up six computer labs in areas where people might not have access to a computer.