IMMIGRATION MATTERS: Reform to Help Economic Recovery?
New America Media, Commentary, Andrea Nill, Posted: Apr 23, 2009
Editor’s Note: Recent research suggests that immigration reform could add billions in new revenue instead of being a drain on the economy. Andrea Nill is communications and research associate at the Immigration Policy Center, a division of American Immigration Law Foundation. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of immigration experts and advocates.
Last week, the White House reaffirmed President Obama’s commitment to working on immigration reform during his first year as president. While Obama has made clear that fixing the economy is his number one priority, a summary of recent research released by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) shows that fixing the broken immigration system could bring us one step closer to economic recovery.
As right-wing pundits falsely claim that immigration reform would cost the American public “billions,” available research suggests that — had the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 passed — it would have generated a much needed $66 billion in new revenue during 2007 to 2016 from income and payroll taxes, as well as various administrative fees. According to Dan Siciliano, associate dean at Stanford University, "We know, from experience and analysis, that a legalization program helps grow the economy. Being undocumented causes immigrants not to invest in themselves, in their community, or their skills. Enfranchised consumers who are part of the above ground economy are more invested consumers. They are more likely to invest extra time, money, and effort into their children and themselves."
In fact, according to Giovanni Peri, associate professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, immigrants don’t even compete with the majority of natives for the same jobs because they tend to have different levels of education and to work in different occupations. In contrast to what Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs might be telling their audiences, immigrants usually “complement” the native-born workforce -- which increases the productivity, and therefore the wages, of the native-born.
Comprehensive immigration reform would also eliminate the “trap door” that artificially suppresses wages and would allow workers to compete fairly for the first time. Cristina Jiménez, an immigration policy consultant at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy has pointed out that “consigning undocumented workers to a precarious existence undermines all who aspire to a middle-class standard of living.” In a recent post on the Hill’s Congress Blog, Jeanne Butterfield, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, explained:
“Moving forward with comprehensive immigration reform will ensure that all workers are here legally, will punish unscrupulous employers who undercut their honest competitors, and will restore integrity to the labor market. Labor leader Esther Lopez (United Food and Commercial Workers Union) confirmed: ‘Comprehensive immigration reform is the only way we can level the playing field for all workers. By bringing people out of the shadows and by having legalization be part of a broader immigration reform, we can create an immigration system that works for the American worker. We can't, in this economy, leave 12 million undocumented workers out in the shadows.’”
David Dyssegaard Kallick, senior fellow at the Fiscal Policy Institute, added, "People don't just vanish and imagine what would be involved in driving out 12 million undocumented immigrants. Mass deportation isn't realistic. What is realistic is making sure immigrants work in the above-ground economy. Immigration reform isn't about being pro-immigrant or anti-immigrant -- it's about having an immigration system that functions and addresses what I think everyone recognizes as a broken system."
While a policy designed to deport approximately 10 million undocumented immigrants would cost at least $206 billion over five years, or $41.2 billion annually; immigration reform would pay for itself in the form of increased wages, buying-power, and tax contributions that would benefit all working men and women.
Related Articles:
As Obama Promises Immigration Reform, State Backlash Continues
S.F. Immigrants Testify Against Racial Profiling
Deportation Rips Family Apart -- Moves Student to Organize
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User Comments
zuzu on Apr 24, 2009 at 08:20:40 said:
CJ is right, until the government recognizes that it is actually DETERRING the very people who are needed here, while at the same time encouraging illegal immigration by proposing amnesty, the problems will persist.
I'm an E2 investor (small business entrepreneur). I currently employ 8 US citizens and would employ more if I had a secure future here. So would many other E2 investors who collectively employ tens of thousands of citizens.
Under curent legislation, E2 investors have no path to permanent residence and the government is strangely hostile to us.
Allowing E2 investors to stay and create more employment would help the economy and encourage other would-be foreign investors to come here instead of Australia, Canada and other countries thst welcome them.
Welcome the good guys, deter the bad guys. Duh.
MIKE LANDERS on Apr 24, 2009 at 04:38:13 said:
66 BILLION IN REVENUE BUT HOW MUCH IN EXPENSES. FREE HEALTH CARE, LOW OR NO COST HOUSING, DRAINS ON THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WITH BOTH BI-LINGUAL CLASSES AND FREE LUNCHES, NOT TO MENTION THE FREE TUITION GIVEN TO THEM DEPRIVING KIDS WHO WERE BORN HERE AND CAN'T AFFORD THE EDUCATION AT THESE SCHOOLS. YET IT'S OK. THAT'S B.S. TO SAY THEY CAN HAVE THEIR GRANDPARENTS, WHO HAVE NEVER WORKED A DAY HERE IN THEIR LIVES,BE ELIGIBLE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY IS SO UNFAIR. I'M TIRED OF BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO HELP WHEN THEY COULD CARE LESS. FOR INSTANCE IF THEY WANTED TO BECOME CITIZENS THEN LEARN AND SPEAK THE LANGUAGE. DON'T SAY THAT IT'S OUR TRADITION. WANT A NEW LIFE HERE WITH BENEFITS START WITH LEARNING AND SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE. AND BY THE WAY I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR YOUR LANGUAGE CLASSES EITHER.
CJ on Apr 23, 2009 at 08:22:06 said:
Any immigration reform you want to please address the legal immigration mess and make it easier and less unfriendly for foreigners to access work visas like H-1B to help keep the US strong and dynamic.
CJ
e3visa.info
Lo on Apr 23, 2009 at 07:22:34 said:
Finally an article that makes sense. U.S. Citizen for legalization of the undocumented!!!
Brittanicus on Apr 22, 2009 at 20:49:19 said:
It 's not a joke to realize that since California's Proposition 187 that was derailed--never meant to be decided in the Supreme court , illegal aliens have been able take from legal people $$billions$$ in social services, thanks to the mainly Liberal Sacramento Assembly. Then their is Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) is available to illegal immigrants even if they do not have a valid Social Security number. The EITC Earned Income Tax Credit is the most accessible of the major entitlement programs and used by more people than food stamps or Medicare and is badly abused to the tune of $47 billion dollars, without paying in a cent into the system. In California taxes have risen to one of the highest in the land, through forced mandates of our government. Think about it? If you are in the low income bracket with a large family as many illegal immigrants seem to have, that family receives an average of $30,000 in governmental benefits! Yet they pay only about $9,000 in taxes per year. That creates a $21,000 shortfall that the American taxpayer has to make up according to the Heritage Foundation.
-->First and foremost we are a nation of laws, or as we are all anticipated? For years of previous administrations have neglected the illegal immigrant problem, to the detriment of American workers. Ever since the inception of the 1986 Immigration & Reform Act, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, the politicians have pushed for a new AMNESTY. In addition, anytime a new law has been drafted to combat the illegal immigrant occupation of our country, they have behind closed doors killed it or weakened it's enactment. The law of given instant citizenship to babies intentionally born here, is a complete misinterpretation of the 14th amendment, after the civil war that emancipated African slaves. The fact is soon one side of the population, will draw battle lines with the pro-illegal immigrant entities. Either side has a fair chance of winning. However if the open border zealots enact a 2nd Amnesty. No fence, no rules or regulations will stop the unending waves of poor, non-comprehension of English and uneducated spilling across the borders, overstaying visas bring contagious diseases and criminals than we have ever seen?