Economic Impact
Immigrants are essential to the U.S. economy, filling roles from high-skilled tech sectors to agricultural labor and driving economic growth. They also contribute to the tax base and consumer spending. We champion reform that will maximize this effect and create a more diverse and competitive workforce.
States and Counties Continue to Create Policies that Integrate Immigrants and Boost Communities
Before Congress left for August recess, members failed to pass a supplemental spending bill to cover the costs of managing the influx of unaccompanied minors and families at the southern border. Most have given up on hoping the House of Representatives will take up comprehensive immigration reform after House… Read More
Iranian-American Woman Breaks Glass Ceiling with Math Prize
The Fields Medal is frequently called the “Nobel Prize” of mathematics, and since it was first awarded in 1936, 16 of the 28 honorees affiliated with United States institutions were foreign-born, including two of the medals awarded last week. But before last week, a woman had never won the… Read More
Seven Reasons Why Undocumented Immigrants are Rooted in America
With immigration legislation now moribund in Congress, all eyes have turned to the White House to see what sorts of non-legislative fixes to the immigration system might be implemented by the Obama administration. While the administration’s deliberations remain private, it is almost certain that one of the fixes being… Read More
Nativist Group Falsely Blames Immigrants for Unemployment in Tennessee
From the narrow, nativist perspective of groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), every immigrant worker who enters the U.S. economy is stealing a job from a native-born worker. In this view of the world, employment is a zero-sum game in which immigrants and the native-born… Read More
Remembering the Promise and Power of the American Dream on Independence Day
More than 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers declared our nation’s independence from England, and ever since, men and women from around the world have sworn to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America” as they become U.S. citizens. The Fourth of July… Read More
Supreme Court Decides Immigrants Can “Age-Out” of Visa Petitions
In Scialabba v. Cuellar de Osorio, a heavily-divided Supreme Court ruled against thousands of aspiring young immigrants who were included on their parents’ visa petitions as minors, but who turned 21—known as “aging-out”—before visas became available. Aging-out is tantamount to someone losing his place in the visa line… Read More
The U.S. Deportation System’s Human Toll
The injustice of the U.S. deportation machine is apparent in many ways. There are the senseless deportations of people whose worst offense was a traffic ticket. There is the tearing apart of families as wives are separated from husbands, children from parents—not to mention the impact on… Read More
Honoring the Foreign-Born Service Members of Yesterday and Today on Memorial Day
Each year, roughly 8,000 immigrants join the U.S. military, bringing linguistic skills and cultural diversity that enrich each branch of the Armed Forces. Nearly 65,000 service members have become naturalized U.S. citizens since September 2001, but there are still limits that prevent young immigrants who want… Read More
Mission Not Yet Accomplished: The Affordable Care Act and Immigrants
By Jenny Rejeske, Health Policy Analyst at the National Immigration Law Center. In the fall, Jirayut Latthivongskorn—known as “New” to friends and family—will make history. He’ll get one step closer to achieving his educational dreams by becoming the first DACAmented student at the renowned University of California-San… Read More
High-Skilled Immigration Boosts Native-Born Wages in Cities
Despite the soaring demand there are only 85,000 H-1B visas available each year for high-skilled workers. And as a new report explains, these foreign workers who often work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields are helping to boost the wages of native born workers without taking… Read More
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