Big Payoff Seen in Immigration Reform

Despite the American penchant for xenophobia, a report from two policy institutes concludes that legalizing the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. would boost wages, consumption, jobs and tax revenue. —JCL

CNN:

Legalization of the more than 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States would raise wages, increase consumption, create jobs and generate more tax revenue, two policy institutes say in a joint report Thursday.

The report by the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council estimates that “comprehensive immigration reform that legalizes currently unauthorized immigrants and creates flexible legal limits on future immigration” would yield at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over a 10-year period.

“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,” study author Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda writes.

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Marchers call for immigration reform at a May Day rally in downtown Los Angeles last year.