…for The Hill…
As President Barack Obama discusses immigration reform with congressional leaders, it is important to keep in mind that such reform would deliver a much-needed boost to the U.S. economy. Contrary to the views of some, immigration is an economic resource that can be maximized to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers. A comprehensive immigration reform package that includes a pathway to legal status for unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States would increase their wages, and therefore their purchasing power and tax contributions, which would support hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs at a time of high unemployment, and generate billions of dollars in government revenue at a time of gaping budget deficits…
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…for Politico…
In his Dec. 3 Ideas piece, “Recovering Stolen Jobs Key to Recovery,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) misconstrues the relationship between unauthorized immigration and unemployment among native-born workers. Smith seems to think that deporting the 8 million unauthorized-immigrant workers now in the United States would magically create 8 million job openings for unemployed, native-born Americans. In the real world, however, it’s not that simple. Immigrant and native-born workers cannot simply be exchanged for one another like batteries…
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…for the Fairfax Times…
As Virginia grapples with a budget deficit brought on by the current recession, state and local policymakers would do well to keep in mind that immigrant communities are a potent force for economic recovery. Immigrants, and the adult children of immigrants, already contribute billions of dollars to the state economy each year as workers, taxpayers, consumers and entrepreneurs. These contributions would be even greater if currently unauthorized immigrants had a pathway to legal status, thereby drawing all of them into the tax system. Moreover, newly legalized workers could earn higher wages, further increasing their tax contributions and the amount of money they have to spend in Virginia businesses…
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…for the Culpeper Star-Exponent…
Tuesday’s front-page story “Illegal immigration costs Va. $625 per household” doesn’t fully explain the serious flaws in a recent report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform claiming that “Virginia’s illegal immigrant population costs the state’s taxpayers nearly $1.7 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration.” FAIR dramatically exaggerates the fiscal “costs” of unauthorized immigrants by including the schooling of their native-born, U.S.-citizen children in its estimate, and completely discounts the economic role that unauthorized workers play as consumers who support Virginia businesses…
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…for The Sacramento Bee…
As state and local governments grapple with budget deficits brought on by the economic recession, some are blaming immigrants – particularly undocumented immigrants. According to this flawed reasoning, if the tax contributions of immigrants in general, or undocumented immigrants in particular, don’t cover the costs of the public services they utilize in a single year, then immigrants must be a financial “burden” on the majority of taxpayers. However, by this measure, nearly all native-born children, retirees and unemployed workers also qualify as economic “burdens.” A realistic accounting of the economic “value” of a person must include the contributions made over a lifetime as a worker, consumer and taxpayer….
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…for New York Times UpFront…
Undocumented immigrants contribute to our economy as workers, taxpayers, and consumers. They account for 5 percent of the total U.S. labor force, and at least a quarter of the workers in industries like construction, agriculture, groundskeeping, meat processing, and textile production. All undocumented immigrants pay sales and property taxes, and—contrary to popular belief—most pay federal and state income taxes as well, even though they’re not eligible for Social Security, Medicare, or the many other programs their tax dollars help fund. Undocumented immigrants also spend billions of dollars each year, which supports our economy and helps create new jobs…
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…for New America Media…
It is commonsense that undocumented immigration is driven by economics. Most undocumented immigrants come from nations where economic opportunities are few and far between. Migrants would not leave behind families and homelands to embark upon potentially deadly journeys to the United States if there weren’t a good chance they could find jobs once they got here. And few immigrants would go back to countries that lack job opportunities unless there were no more jobs available in the United States. Not surprisingly, immigrants strive to build better lives in places where they can actually earn livelihoods…
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…for The Washington Post…
In his Sept. 5 op-ed, “Importing Poverty,” Robert J. Samuelson made a common yet fatal mistake when it comes to the supposed link between immigration and poverty. Immigrants are no more responsible for poverty than are the native-born working poor…
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…for New America Media…
Among the many troubling aspects of the public debate over immigration is the power of myths over facts. One of the most enduring myths about immigration, despite literally decades of evidence to the contrary, is the belief that immigrants are more likely to commit crime than the native-born. This myth is so widespread and unquestioned that it has been the catalyst for scores of local governments to consider anti-immigrant ordinances over the past year. These calls to crack down on undocumented immigrants, the employers who hire them and the landlords who rent to them, are framed in part as “anti-crime” ordinances…
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