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What you should know about what's in the news.
Immigration
Last week, the New York Times announce President Barack Obama was planning to begin the national dialogue on immigration reform as early as next month… Many conservatives are planning to mount an attack against any reform, claiming a focus on legalizing as well as enforcement will hurt the current economy. [NYTimes]
By Christy Harvey, Mic Check Radio
April 13, 2009
Know Five Things
1. Effect On The Economy – New Taxpayers
- According to the Immigration Policy Center, “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that $66 billion in new revenue over 10 years would have been generated if the 2006 immigration reform bill, which would have legalized most of our undocumented population, had passed.”
- Also from the Immigration Policy Center: “The “underground” construction workforce in New York City represented $342 million in lost tax revenue in 2005 because of employers who paid workers “off the books,” according to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute.” [Immigration Policy Center]
2. Immigrants Hold “Complementary Jobs”
- A Pew Hispanic Center report from 2005 broke down where many undocumented workers were employed. These workers make up 4.9% of the total labor force, but are concentrated in a few low-skill jobs, such as fishing and farming (24%), building and grounds cleaning (17%), construction (14%) and food preparation (12%). [Pew]
- The jobs held by many of the non-documented workers are not in high demand among native workers, in part because the “number of natives with less than a high school degree has declined over time.” A study by the University of California, Davis, in 2006 found that because “immigrant workers generally “complement”—rather than substitute for—native workers in terms of their education and skills, immigration tends to increase the productivity, and therefore the wages, of natives.” [Council of Economic Advisers] [UC Davis report]
3. Working Immigrants Raises Wages For All
- More from the UC Davis report: “By looking at the data on the 100 largest U.S. cities over the past three decades, the two economists found that for each 1 percent increase in the number of foreign-born workers in a city, American-born workers saw a 0.3 percent increase in real wages.” [UC Davis report]
- There were similar findings in a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which found that thanks to this “complementary” role of immigrant workers, “roughly 90 percent of native-born workers experience wage gains from immigration, which total between $30 billion and $80 billion per year.” [Council of Economic Advisers]
4. Working Immigrants Create More Jobs For All
- Huffington Post pointed out a report by the William C. Velasquez Institute at UCLA that “makes the case that legalizing millions of undocumented people is the most effective stimulus plan we’ve got. Legalization would create $4.5 to $5.4 billion in net tax revenue alone, not to mention the nearly million new jobs and $30-36 billion in personal wealth it could generate.” [Huffington Post]
- The economist James Holt “estimates that each farmworker creates an average of 3 new jobs in the surrounding area. Apples have to be packaged, shipped and sold, all jobs that are often done by native-born Americans.” [James Holt]
5. "Enforcement-Only" Doesn’t Work
- Example: The U.S. has spent more and more money on immigration enforcement. The 2006 budget for the U.S. Border patrol was $1.6 billion, up 332% since 1993. There were 14,923 border agents in 2007, up 276% since 1993. However, at the same time, the number of undocumented immmigrants in the United States tripled during that time, from 4 million to 12 million between 1990 and 2008. [Immigration Policy]
- Example: You cannot simply deport all undocumented immigrants. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, trying to deport the 10 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States would cost $206 billion over five years. [American Progress]
Talk to An Expert Interested in talking with an expert on this topic or hosting a speaking event? Contact speakers@campusprogress.org.
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