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Report: Immigration Reform Would Boost Economy
A new report shows that comprehensive immigration reform would help American workers and the U.S. economy. Reform that offers a path to citizenship for currently unauthorized workers and enforces workers’ rights would raise the “wage floor” for the entire U.S. economy and increase the total gross domestic product (GDP) by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade, the report says.
“Raising the Floor for American Workers,” by the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center, says finding a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers is a much better alternative in this economic crisis than expanding guest worker programs or mass deportation.
The temporary worker program only generates an annual increase of 0.44 percent in the nation’s GDP or $792 billion over 10 years. It also leads to declining wages for newly legalized immigrant workers, the report says.
Mass deportation would reduce U.S. GDP by 1.46 percent annually or $2.6 trillion, not including the actual cost of deportation, the report adds. Wages would rise for less-skilled native-born workers, while wages for higher-skilled natives would drop. The deportations would lead to widespread job loss as well.
History bears out these findings, according to the report. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which provided opportunities for citizenship, was enacted during an economic recession characterized by high unemployment. Yet it helped raise wages and spurred increases in educational, home and small-business investments by newly legalized immigrants.
Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, director of the North American Integration and Development Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the report’s author, says:
This is a compelling economic reason to move away from the current “vicious cycle” where enforcement-only policies perpetuate unauthorized migration and exert downward pressure on already low wages, and toward a “virtuous cycle” of worker empowerment in which legal status and labor rights exert upward pressure on wages.
Click here to read the full report.
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21 Comments
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Until the flow of illegal immigrants is stopped no one legal citizen or illegal alien will benefit.So long as there is an influx of people coming in there will always be someone willing to do the job for less.It is a revolving door and has been for a very long time blame it on whatever you want but until the flow is stopped it will not change.Give amnesty to one and you will have to give it to all.Seal the borders first then we can work on a solution to the problem.
Sealing the border? Sorry, Doc…never gonna happen.
I support the report’s findings.
Dear Dr,do you not think that bringing these illegal workers out of the shadows and in turn exposing these illegal employers will benefit all workers in America?Like I said so many times before,when you force these businesses to pay the full cost of their legal employees,the incentive is gone,not to mention the new money that will flow into the treasury in SS#,Medicare,Unemployment ins.taxes that are currently skirted.
I’m glad this report has been published. There are many reasons to legalize the current undocumented population and the improvement to our national economy is one of them.
It is clear to me that corporate leaders have found a way to increase their profits, while holding back our economy and at the same time forcing federal, state, and local governments to figure out how to deal with the increased undocumented population. Billions are spent, unwisely and counterproductively, to alleviate the concerns around undocumented workers. We have a broken immigration system that pushes people to violate it. Let’s fix the system by including the interests of US and immigrants workers, employers who play fair, and the broader community.
People will always find a way to get into this country, legally or illegally, if they are desperate enough. It’s futile to waste time and resources trying to enforce a law that does not recognize this reality. If currrent immigrati0on laws are being violated on such a massive scale, it may well be that the law s at fault and not the people who fdeel compelled to break it.
As unionists, our job is to organize people so they can stand up for themselves and not be taken advantage of by employers. Whatever we do on the legislative front should be done with an eye to making that job easier. Fuming about deporting people or tougher border patrols makes it harder.
The excerpt from the report shows that it is such a stupidly biased report that it is worthless. Any statement that says “where enforcement only policies perpetuate unauthorized migration” is so stupid it is funny. So enforcing and stopping illegals at the border HELPS illegals to come in! I think that any report that says something like this can be thrown into the trash.
Of course, it would make sense ONLY if you wish to say that securing our borders is impossible. I refuse to accept that at all since people such as this who write these reports are opposed to enforcement at all. They are the ones who decry putting up fences and say that they don’t work. Then they complain that they DO WORK because it forces people out into harder places to cross, and too many die doing it!
I think it is time for the AFL-CIO to drop this stupid policy which goes against our history and common sense.
What about the 15 million unemployed workers. Do we think that displacing those workers would boost the economy?
This article is absurd. Anybody that is so uninformed that he would take it at face value probably believes Wall Street’s assertion that the recession is over even with 10.2% unemployment and nearly 20% unemployment at U-6 count.
Fact: The law of supply and demand applies to labor the same as it does to anything else. If you massively dump millions more unskilled workers into the labor force, it drives wages down. With the exception of the banksters, who do you know who is getting big raises in this economy? Businesses don’t have to raise wages to keep employees because employees are afraid of losing their jobs. The people who will be hit hardest if we grant an amnesty will be our own least skilled/educated workers. Who speaks for them? The AFL-CIO used to but apparently doesn’t any longer. Why does it partner with the US Chamber of Commerce on amnesty?
Fact: What you are not told in this report is that the BIG recipients of any GDP increase are the immigrants themselves and their employers who benefit from depressed wages, not the country as a whole. The banksters are about to get some huge bonuses. Does anybody here believe that these bonuses will somehow put money in the pockets of the average worker even if it adds to the GNP? No? Then why do you believe that adding more workers to a depressed economy will help the average worker or the average unemployed would-be worker?
Fact: As for GDP, think about this: India has a GDP of $510 billion and Switzerland has a GDP of $286 billion. However India has vastly more people than Switzerland. So India’s per capita value of its GDP is about $500, Switzerland’s is $39,000. In which country do you think you’d rather live?
The US will hit nearly 450 million in a scant 35-40 years, up from 307 million now. The economic outlook – wages and net worth – for the overwhelming majority of US workers has been stagnant at best and falling at worst for years now. Only the top 5% have been getting ahead. Adding millions more people will not only hurt US workers it will be a devastating blow to the environment.
In spite of our high unemployment rate, the US still brings in over a million LEGAL immigrants a year. It’s time to declare a halt to this conveyer belt and to institute MANDATORY E-verify for being employed. Attrition through enforcement works.
Once again with the racist epithets – “illegal immigrant”, “illegal aliens” (from Mars?) — why not just say ‘wetbacks’, ‘beaners’, or the versatile ‘Spics’? Just because an individual commits a one-time, victimless ‘crime’ like sneaking into this paradise, that does not mean that they are an “illegal” anything! If that were true, it would unite everyone, because EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN IN THE USA BREAKS THE LAW MUCH MORE THAN UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS DO! Think about it – who is the most likely to get caught, and will pay the most dearly when caught? Not us citizens, who violate traffic laws, drug laws, drinking laws, and tax laws routinely and notoriously. Get off your high horse. Do any drinking and driving over the holidays?
OK, let’s talk about legality.
Representative Luis Gutierrez’ amnesty bill is a disaster. Among other things, for a $500 payment, illegal aliens will be granted total amnesty from the felonies that they have committed in order to work in the US including document fraud and identity theft.
Also, all information provided by illegal aliens on their applications for legal status will be treated as secret. They will be encouraged to list the stolen SS numbers, stolen identities, and counterfeit “green cards” that they have been using to get jobs on their applications for legalization. These somehow are supposed to show their “contributions” to the US. However, none of this information can be released to any law enforcement officer or even to the VICTIMS of identity theft. Yes, that’s correct. NOT EVEN THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF IDENTITY THEFT WILL BE NOTIFIED SO THAT THEY CAN BEGIN TO STRAIGHTEN OUT THEIR RECORDS. Also the employers who knowingly hired illegal workers will be granted an immunity from prosecution. So much for those silly employers who obeyed the law, used E-Verify, and got underbid for contracts by violators because they were paying a decent wage.
It is estimated that 75 percent of illegal aliens use fraudulent SS cards. Prime targets of ID theft are children because they are not likely to use their SS#’s and so are less likely to catch fraudulent use.
The Center for Immigration Studies summed it up as follows: “These are not victimless crimes. Children and other Americans suffer very real harm when illegal aliens use their Social Security numbers. They have their credit ruined, are saddled with arrest records, are denied government means-tested benefits, and may even suffer life-threatening consequences if the illegal aliens using their Social Security numbers corrupt their medical records.
However, under H.R. 4321, the millions of American men, women, and children who are victims of illegal-alien job-related felonies will be sacrificed so illegal aliens can get on the path to citizenship.
This bill even prohibits government employees who are processing the applications of illegal aliens applying for legal status from reporting any criminal activity found in the applications to law enforcement authorities. And it threatens government employees with a $10,000 fine if they violate this prohibition.”
The open-borders elites do not care how much havoc is wreaked on an unsuspecting public. They have to have amnesty at any cost to the average US citizen. Why is the AFL-CIO supporting this?
The Great Wall of China worked – for a while. What goes around comes around. Want to occupy the world with armies to create an empire? – Then don’t be surprised when the victims of your empire show up on your doorstep. If the AFL-CIO didn’t go along with every military intervention of U.S. imperialism, there would by now be many more governments dedicated to improving the lives of workers, and a lot less interest in those countries in coming to the U.S. Until you are ready to support revolution against U.S. corporate interests in the third world, you might as well just learn to speak Spanish (a great idea!) so you can order some real Mexican food instead of Taco Bell crap.
I write this even though, like you, I hate and fear immigrants, whether or not they posess the right papers. They have taken all of our wonderful jobs, and ruined my childhood dream of devoting my entire life to harvesting lettuce.
Did the white man get permission or a visa from the natives as they conquered and colonized the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia? For the rich – Might makes Right. Laws are for the poor. We will surely be able to move ahead together much faster, union brothers and sisters, when everyone just drops the heavy racist baggage that the corporate media has us carrying around in our heads.
“We will surely be able to move ahead together much faster, union brothers and sisters, when everyone just drops the heavy racist baggage that the corporate media has us carrying around in our heads.”
The corporate MSM has been howling for amnesty for years! And still is! Where have you been? This ridiculous article could just as easily have appeared in the “Wall Street Journal”.
And as for “racist”, surely you have noticed that the people being hurt most by our failure to enforce our immigration laws are young workers and minority workers, especially African-Americans.
Let’s take a look at some figures:
•The unemployment rate for young native-born Americans (18-29) who have ONLY a high school education is 19 percent. Their U-6 measure is 31.2 percent.
•The unemployment rate for native-born blacks with LESS than a high school education is 28.8 percent. Their U-6 measure is 42.2 percent.
•The unemployment rate for young native-born blacks (18-29) with ONLY a high school education is 27.1 percent. Their U-6 measure is 39.8 percent.
•The unemployment rate for native-born Hispanics with LESS than a high school education is 23.2 percent. Their U-6 measure is 35.6 percent.
•The unemployment rate for young native-born Hispanics (18-29) with ONLY a high school degree is 20.9 percent. Their U-6 measure is 33.9 percent.
This is damning information. And keep in mind that the “unemployment rate” mentioned here is for those actively seeking employment. The U-6 rate reflects those workers and also those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time and people who have simply stopped looking because they have searched for months without finding a job! “Business Week” had a 1/9/2010 article that noted that only the exodus of about 661,000 discouraged workers from the labor force – and thus from the “unemployment” statistics – in December kept the unemployment rate from climbing even higher than it is now. The recession is far from over.
Open your eyes; you are being had.
This isn’t about racism, it’s about fairness to legal US workers whatever their race or creed. Institute E-Verify for employment and halt the conveyor belt of new foreign workers into the US and watch attrition through enforcement work.
Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, are fueling this growth. I’m not talking about environmental degradation or resource depletion. I’m talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty in America.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled “Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America.” To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management, especially immigration policy. Our policies of encouraging high rates of immigration are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
The U.N. ranks the U.S. with eight third world countries – India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia and China – as accounting for fully half of the world’s population growth by 2050. It’s absolutely imperative that our population be stabilized, and that’s impossible without dramatically reining in immigration, both legal and illegal.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at http://PeteMurphy.wordpress.com.
Pete Murphy
Author, “Five Short Blasts”
Pete, would you propose a policy similar to China’s one-child policy as a way to control population growth?
Poppycock! How the (&%$ does flooding the employment market with cheap labor raise the wage of workers? Ever hear of the “supply and demand” theory?
Obviously, Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda has an agenda — getting amnesty for illegals — and James Parks is aiding and abetting him.
Parks writes:
History bears out these findings, according to the report. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which provided opportunities for citizenship, was enacted during an economic recession characterized by high unemployment. Yet it helped raise wages and spurred increases in educational, home and small-business investments by newly legalized immigrants.
Read carefully, the 1986 amnesty provided opportunity, increased wages, etc., FOR THE NEWLY LEGALIZED IMMIGRANTS. NOT existing US citizens. We, the citizens of this country saw our wages and living conditions spiral downward.
Parks also fails to mention that the 1986 amnesty was sold to the American public as being the end-all to illegal immigration. No more was to occur. Enforcement was to be swift and strict.
Major offenders such as Mexico agreed. Yet look at us today. There’s people like James Parks, President Obama, most of Congress and many, many others who failed to learn that rewarding the bad behavior of the 3 million illegals in 1986 has given us 20+ million more illegals. Rewarding them again will only bring more. It’s called learned behavior.
We are being forced into an all-out war with capital for which we are not prepared, yet we still have a shrill and significant group of members who apparently would prefer to go back in time 175 years and refight the war with Mexico. Relax! – “We” won that war of agression and conquest, and the prize was half of Mexico and a whole lot of Mexican Americans. I worked with a Mexican-American from south Texas for years whose family goes back many generations in the same area. He used to say “I didn’t cross the border – the border crossed me!” Get used to it. No te mataria aprender un poco de espanol.
“the 1986 amnesty was sold to the American public as being the end-all to illegal immigration. No more was to occur. Enforcement was to be swift and strict.”
Exactly, grace, and we know what happened. Amnesty was swift, sure, and permanent and shot through with fraud; but we are still waiting for enforcement. It is estimated that at least a quarter of those who were amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty secured their amnesty via fraud. Why should we believe that anything different would occur in 2010, only with dramatically larger numbers?
So when the enforcement didn’t come through, did the US go back and repeal the amnesty and force all of those amnestied and the family members that they subsequently brought in via chain migration to leave the US? Of course not. Once they are legalized, you can’t repeal people.
You can start and stop wars, begin new programs and end old ones, raise and lower taxes, and amend the Constitution; but you can’t go back and retroactively repeal people. And all Congress would have to do is to refuse to fund enforcement after they get their amnesty and we would be stuck again.
No one is re-fighting the war with Mexico. We are simply insisting that the US enforce the immigration laws that are already on the books with the same diligence that Mexico – and most of the rest of the world – enforces its immigration laws. No country in the world has been more generous than the US with allowing in immigrants, refugees, and their families. It’s time we started thinking about our own citizens.
I doubt that the rank and file shares the AFL-CIO’s enthusiasm for another amnesty.
Perhaps you are not aware of it, but the Mexican government is getting its ass kicked by drug cartels armed to the teeth by U.S. arms profiteers who smuggle weapons and people daily through our immense and porous common border. Full enforcement is impossible, but that does not stop the most vicious anti-union forces here from constantly clamoring for it, because even attempting it would bring about the police state they want. Such a regime would not only devastate all immigrants regardless of status, but also anyone with an accent or a little skin pigmentation, and would ultimately divide and destroy what is left of our unions.
Police State? Weak, very weak. C’mon now. you are grasping at straws. We don’t have to kick down doors or terrify children. All we have to do is institute E-Verify and watch attrition through enforcement work. At the same time spread the 287(g) program nationwide to catch those who fall into our law enforcement system. It’s simple; it works. What are we waiting for?
E-Verify is a system that can be used to verify who is eligible to work in the US. It is highly accurate, quick, and easy to use. Simply start using it on new hires and then systematically go forward and verify current employees. Denied employment, many illegal aliens will go home. We have already seen some of this when AZ instituted E-Verify. Some Mexican legislators became really angry that we had the audacity to enforce our own laws, if you can imagine, when they started to get some of their own citizens returning home!
And as for the “most vicious anti-union forces”, sorry to have to inform you of this but they are FOR amnesty. They recognize the power of the law of supply and demand even if many on the left don’t. It is an absolute mystery to me why the AFL-CIO would partner with the US Chamber of Commerce et al to flood the US with cheap foreign labor. I ask again, WHY?
Below are some CIS backgrounders on the following topics: the 1986 amnesty, the new amnesty bill, 287(g), how cracking down on illegal workers helped in unionization, and my particular favorite, how the federal government helps illegal aliens get away with identity theft at the expensive of US citizens. I have to confess that I am mystified as to why we allow both the Democrats and the Republicans to screw us over royally where illegal aliens are concerned. Again, I ask WHY? Are we really that clueless?
http://www.cis.org/irca-amnesty
http://cis.org/Amnesty2010/CIRASAP-HR4321
http://www.cis.org/287greport
http://www.cis.org/SmithfieldImmigrationRaid-Unionization
http://www.cis.org/IdentityTheft
I am well aware of the fact that Mexico is in deep trouble with the drug cartels. Would you care to guess which city is right behind Mexico City in kidnappings? Phoenix, AZ. Yep, the mess is spilling over into the US because we fail to control our borders.
The truth will set you free. Learn the truth.
Where is the guy that goes by the blog name “IllegalsGoHome”? He is strangely silent on this blog entry. The topic of immigration reform is his bread and butter. His posts make me laugh.