America's Voice Blog

Posted 09/01/10 at 11:49am By Jackie Mahendra

STUDY: Immigration Fattens Our Paychecks, Makes us Richer

A new study by the San Francisco Fed, highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg,  and Reuters, provides state-level proof that immigrants, well, make us richer.

According to the author of the report:

[T]otal immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 was associated with a 6.6% to 9.9% increase in real income per worker. That equals an increase of about $5,100 in the yearly income of the average U.S. worker in constant 2005 dollars. Such a gain equals 20% to 25% of the total real increase in average yearly income per worker registered in the United States between 1990 and 2007.

The study is making the rounds in the blogosphere.  Matt Yglesias writes, in “How Immigration Boosts Living Standards:”

When new workers come onto the scene and do jobs, they create more surplus. To get the kind of zero-sum effect that people think occurs when you get rid of immigrants, what you would actually need to do is send retirees to the Death Panels and turn them into Soylent Green.

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Posted 06/21/10 at 02:01pm By Web Team

Mint.com Quickly Retracts a Conspicuously Anti-Immigrant Article

Mint.com, a popular personal finance blog, quickly saved face after one their bloggers posted an unreservedly biased, anti-immigrant analysis of the economic implications of immigration. The one-sided reporting and questionable data drew hasty scrutiny, leading the site to replace the post with an apology.

Of the post’s several disputed "facts," here are a couple gems, noted by Megan McArdle of The Atlantic: Ross Crooks, the writer, cited data from the overtly racist VDare.com (a site named after Virginia Dare, the first Caucasian child born on American soil). 2) Without citation, Crooks claims that, "about 41% of all unemployment checks issued in the United States are to illegal aliens.” The law does not permit unauthorized immigrants to receive unemployment checks, making this allegation rather dubious. 3) Again without citation, the blog post alleges that illegal immigrants cost Arizona $2.7 billion a year, more than a quarter of its annual budget. With undocumented immigrants accounting for less than a tenth of Arizona’s population, such a claim doesn’t pass the smell test.

But aside from the fact that the blog post uses such suspicious statistics, it makes no mention of the economic contributions made by immigrants or immigration overall.

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein succinctly explains why presenting only one side of the story is so unfair:

Illegal immigrants pay a variety of taxes, including payroll and sales taxes, but return to their home countries before they collect the benefits. They drive down wages for competing workers, which is a cost, but also drive down prices of the goods they produce, which is a benefit. They help some industries which would leave the country remain within American borders (as the line goes, California either imports people who pick strawberries or it imports strawberries). They purchase things. They're disproportionately young (one way of lessening our entitlements crisis would be a massive increase in immigration). And of course, there are enormous economic benefits to the immigrants themselves, and to the countries that receive the money they send home.

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Posted 04/26/10 at 03:46pm By Mahwish Khan

Mayors Bloomberg and Gordon Condemn Arizona Bill—Plus, New York Will Welcome AZ’s Business!

Phoenix Mayor, Phil Gordon, and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, are condemning Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s move on Friday to sign the controversial SB 1070 into law.

Gordon’s primary focus is on the adverse implications this bill will have on community safety. By diverting police attention from dangerous criminals to harmless undocumented immigrants, this bill has the alarming ability to alienate a population that would otherwise be helpful in reporting and reducing real crime. Watch his interview on Fox News:

 

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Posted 04/14/10 at 02:04pm By Mahwish Khan

Immigrants to Tea Party Protesters: “We’ll Pay!”

On April 15, thousands of people associated with the Tea Party movement are expected to rally around the nation, demanding lower taxes and less government.  These so-called "tea parties" stand in stark contrast to larger rallies and other events that have cropped up across the nation calling for comprehensive immigration reform and a rational solution to our broken immigration system.

The immigration reform events provide an interesting contrast to the Tea Party movement because comprehensive immigration reform is about getting more people into the tax system, not less.

In fact, several studies have shown that comprehensive immigration reform would create millions of new taxpayers and bring in billions of new tax dollars, strengthening Social Security and growing the economy by $1.5 trillion without raising tax rates.

Below are some key facts that the Tea Party may want to keep in mind:

  • $1.5 trillion – the amount by which comprehensive immigration reform legislation would grow the economy over the next 10 years according to a recent study by Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda for the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress.
  • $4.5 - $5.5 billion – the amount of new tax revenue that would be generated over the next three years by passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation, according to the same report.
  • $180 billion – the amount that U.S. household income would increase from passing comprehensive immigration reform, according to the conservative CATO Institute.
  • $285 billion – the cost to implement the mass deportation policy favored by opponents to comprehensive immigration reform, according to a new study by the Center for American Progress.  This eye popping amount would pay the annual salaries of every elementary school teacher in America for three and a half years.
  • $1.757 trillion – the amount in annual lost spending if we were to eliminate the undocumented immigrant population from the United States, according to a 2008 study by the Perryman Group.
  • $2.6 trillion – the amount the nation’s economy will lose in GDP if a policy of mass deportation were to be implemented according to the Center for American Progress.
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Posted 02/03/10 at 02:15pm By Mahwish Khan

The $4 Trillion Opportunity: Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The President announced his budget Monday, sending many members of Congress into an angry frenzy over $3.83 trillion that Obama had allotted for an array of programs – mostly to fight growing unemployment and strengthen our weak economy.

But some members of Congress -- many of the same who are complaining over the “huge” deficit-- are trying to keep this big secret under wraps:

There is a $4.1 trillion choice in Washington. We did the math, and put simply:

Comprehensive Immigration Reform = $1.5 trillion increase in GDP over 10 years

Mass Deportation = $2.6 trillion loss in GDP over 10 years

How's that, you ask?

A new report called “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” by the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress shows that a policy of comprehensive immigration reform would grow U.S. GDP by 0.84 percent over 10 years, or a cumulative $1.5 trillion.

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Posted 01/30/10 at 10:23am By Jackie Mahendra

Senator Graham: Deporting 12 Million Won’t Work, Need a Comprehensive Immigration Fix

Yesterday Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator from South Carolina, stood up for a comprehensive fix to our badly damaged immigration system. Graham has been crafting bipartisan legislation with Senator Schumer for some time now, and details of the bill are expected soon.

Senator Graham makes the case, in an interview with Brian Goldsmith, that the frenzied attempts to define comprehensive reform as "Amnesty" are as ludicrous as the enforcement-only alternative to real reform: the dangerous (and costly) notion that we can deport or jail twelve million people-- the number of unauthorized immigrants currently in the U.S.

Marc Ambinder reports for The Atlantic:

BRIAN GOLDSMITH: You're one of the few Republicans fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, which most Republicans have called amnesty. Where do you think that stands?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well I think the idea of border security as a confidence builder is the way to start. Most Americans are very practical and reasonable. They're upset about broken borders and our out-of-control immigration system. They will buy into a comprehensive solution if we can prove to them, and only if we can prove to them, we don't have twenty million more illegal immigrants, ten years, twenty years down the road.

And when it comes to the illegal alien population, if the definition of amnesty is you got to deport twelve million people, or put twelve million people in jail, then we'll never have a comprehensive solution, because that's just not workable, it's not practical.

To me, amnesty would be forgiving people, like Ronald Reagan did, with no consequence, and not repairing the system. Amnesty is what we have today. What I would like to see is the illegal immigrant population come out of the shadows, be biometrically identified, be required to learn English, pay the fines for their crime, and get right with the law. If they want to be a citizen, get in the back of the line, not break into line.

And to my Republican colleagues, I can understand the politics of this is difficult. Big things are hard to do. But I believe in 2008, we lost a lot of ground with the Hispanic community because of the rhetoric and the tone we set on immigration.

The cost of deporting these 12 million unauthorized immigrants has been pegged at anywhere from $100 billion (an estimate by ICE, Immigration Customs and Enforcement) to $230 billion dollars over 5 years (according to a Center for American Progress analysis cited in  the Washington Post), with a loss of 2.6 billion to our GDP. On the other hand, new studies show that immigration reform would bring about a $1.5 trillion boon to our economy.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive political blog Daily Kos, argues in "Immigration reform would be good for the economy:"

Anti-immigrant forces are hoping the bad economy gives them ammo to scuttle the common-sense legalization of 10-15 million undocumented workers in this country. The thinking goes, since so many Americans have no jobs, there would be little appetite to grant "illegals" the right to stay and work.

That may have some rhetorical power, even if few Americans are lining up to work in slaughterhouses or as day laborers. But fact is, normalizing their status would be a huge boost to the economy.

Bottom line is that the Senator is right: when it comes to immigration reform, we can't afford to wait. Or to take the simplistic "No Amnesty!" bait.

Posted 01/13/10 at 12:49pm By Mahwish Khan

Drum Major Institute: CIR ASAP “Makes the Grade,” Let’s Not Pass the Buck

A new analysis by the Drum Major Institute (DMI) found that the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP bill introduced by Congressmen Solomon Ortiz and Luis Gutierrez late last year would "make the grade" for strengthening and expanding America’s middle class. DMI states the case succinctly:

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act sets the standard for an immigration policy, which will boost our nation’s economy and strengthen and expand its middle class. 

The Institute administered a two-part "middle class test," which the bill passed with flying colors. The legislation was given a soaring "A" for "bolstering the contributions immigrants make to the U.S. economy," and a solid "A-" for "its potential to end the exploitation of undocumented immigrants that threaten the wages and working conditions of America’s aspiring middle class."

That’s a pretty good-looking report card.

An additional study this week, from Manuel Pastor of the University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, examined the potential economic effects of comprehensive reform on the state of California.  The study finds that “newly legalized immigrants earned higher wages, spent more consumer dollars, paid more taxes and helped create jobs,” leading to an economic boon of $16 billion to the state.  

As Pastor stated:

People keep using our economic condition as an excuse to not do comprehensive immigration reform. It’s just the opposite: What we need to do to right our economy and move forward is create a path to legalization.

As California battles severe budget shortfalls, legislators should take note that real immigration reform would increase revenue, boosting the "state and local tax base by about $350 million in the short run."

That's no chump change. It’s also just the latest evidence supporting an already-compelling case for enacting comprehensive immigration reform ASAP.

Click here to read more.
Posted 01/12/10 at 04:27pm By Jackie Mahendra

Latest “Progress Report:” Immigration Reform Integral to Economic Recovery

The crew over at Think Progress devote today's "Progress Report" to the economics of immigration reform, stating:

President Obama's current focus is, understandably, "jobs, jobs, jobs." However, Hinojosa's findings show that the issues of immigration and the economy are far from mutually exclusive. While anti-immigrant groups use anecdotal evidence to erroneously claim that legalization would be disastrous for the American worker, passing comprehensive immigration reform would not only strengthen the labor market, it would promote needed economic growth. Polling released yesterday additionally shows that 66 percent of voters support a program that requires undocumented immigrants to register, meet certain requirements, and become legal taxpayers on their way to becoming full U.S. citizens.

They dig deeper into a recent study by University of California at Los Angeles professor Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, which "showed that comprehensive immigration reform with a path to legalization for the nation's undocumented immigrants could generate a cumulative $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) over 10 years." 

In addition, they cite recent research that together demonstrates the vast economic benefits of immigration reform, as well as the impact it would have on all workers. Among these:

  • The libertarian Cato Institute recently found that legalizing undocumented immigrants and creating future legal channels could increase household income by about $180 billion in the 10th year, or a welfare gain of 1.27 percent. (The recent Hinojosa study reached a similar conclusion: $189 billion).

  • Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that the 2006 reform would have generated $66 billion in new revenue from taxes and fees, over a 10-year period.

  • A study by Giovanni Peri, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California-Davis, further illustrated that immigrants "complement" the native-born workforce, boosting the productivity and wages of native-born workers.

Click here to read more.
Posted 01/12/10 at 03:23pm By Mahwish Khan

Washington Post: Growing Number of Wealthy Immigrants Investing in American Business

Here's an interesting story you don't hear every day -- yet another way in which immigration is a vital piece of our economic recovery.

Under the EB-5 visa program, which was established in 1990, immigrants who have created at least 10 US jobs with their investment of $500,000 - $1 million can be granted legal permanent residency. An appropriate thank you, don’t you think, for those who are creating jobs in a country desperately in need of them?

According to the Washington Post , the number of immigrants taking advantage of the program tripled from 1,443 in 2008 to 4,218 in 2009, partly because the recession motivated the government to streamline often slow-moving procedures -- and the benefits of doing so have been tremendous. The Washington Post reports:

Statistics on the total invested through the EB-5 program are not available, but the capital infusion has been a boon to Washington area businesses. The Capitol Area Regional Center, a real estate investment fund based in the District, has been working to raise a projected $250 million from immigrant investors for use in Washington area construction projects. …"Normally, to get equity capital to these areas is almost impossible," said Michael Wallach, chief operating officer of the corporation.

Though a city benefits monetarily, it’s not always true or likely that the investor does. In fact, the Post reports it as "unlikely" that Eric Canal-Forgues, a participant in the EB-5 program who invested half a million in a regional center that funded the construction of a Philadelphia-based project, "will get more than a 1 percent return by the five-year point at which he will be allowed to withdraw his money. That will barely cover the roughly $50,000 in administrative costs of his investment, let alone the loss of value because of inflation."

This example pokes yet another hole in the stubborn myth that immigrants and immigration reform would hurt American workers, as does a report released earlier this week by the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center.  The report finds that legalizing undocumented immigrants would create revenue of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and support 750,000-900,000 jobs.  And a month ago, both Labor Secretary Locke and Commerce Secretary Solis stated that comprehensive immigration reform would strengthen the US economy.

As Seth Hoy at Immigration Impact writes, commenting on the recent uptick in investments:

While state and local governments continue to dig themselves out of the current economic recession, the message here is clear -- immigrants are not only an economic benefit, but an economic necessity.

Posted 01/07/10 at 01:35pm By Jackie Mahendra

New Study: Immigration Reform Would Bring $1.5 Trillion in Economic Growth

This morning I was live-tweeting from an event at the Center for American Progress (CAP), co-sponsored by the Immigration Policy Center, where economic experts from a wide range of institutions had come together to document the astounding economic benefits to the United States that would come from passing a comprehensive immigration reform package.

The event centered around a new study entitled,  “Raising the Floor for American Workers,” which was written by Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor at UCLA.

As Congress prepares to debate immigration reform early this year, the report crisply lays out the economic argument for fixing our immigration system. Simply put, Americans ignore immigration at the peril of their pocketbooks: passing reform would usher in $1.5 trillion in economic growth. Conversely, we'd see a net drain on our economy of $2.6 trillion over 10 years if we decided to simply deport all undocumented immigrants currently here.

The report examined the impact of the 1986 immigration bill and used economic modeling to make three key findings:

  • Comprehensive immigration reform generates an annual increase in U.S. GDP of at least 0.84 percent. This amounts to $1.5 trillion in additional GDP over 10 years. It also boosts wages for both native-born and newly legalized immigrant workers.

  • A temporary worker program with proper labor protections generates an annual increase in U.S. GDP of 0.44 percent. This amounts to $792 billion of additional GDP over 10 years [...]

  • Mass deportation reduces U.S. GDP by 1.46 percent annually. This amounts to $2.6 trillion in lost GDP over 10 years, not including the actual cost of deportation. [...]

Click here to read more.

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