State and Local Initiatives
They say all politics is local, right? While most of the debate about immigration focuses on congressional action (or inaction), local communities across the country are the ones who feel the value of immigration most tangibly. Now active in more than 50 communities – more than 80 percent of which are in conservative states – the NAE State & Local team works with policymakers, business, and civic leaders to promote policies and programs that help create jobs and drive economic growth. You can explore more of our work on the state and local level here.
Foreign-Born Residents in Alexandria Paid $365 Million in Taxes in 2016
ALEXANDRIA, VA – Immigrants in the City of Alexandria paid $364.6 million in taxes in 2016, including $262.4 million in federal taxes and $102.2 million in state and local taxes, according to a new report by New American Economy (NAE), in partnership with the City of Alexandria Workforce… Read More
Afghan Immigrant Studies to Become a Professor While Serving Her Community Along the Way
When 12-year-old Sophia Aimen Sexton lived in Pakistan as a refugee after fleeing Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War, she watched a lot of Clint Eastwood movies. “I thought when we arrived in America, they would give me a horse and I’d be a cowgirl in the desert,” recalls Sexton. The reality was much different. In 1983, when Sexton’s family was resettled… Read More
Economist Escapes Ethiopia to Start Own Business in the U.S.
In his native Ethiopia, where he’d earned an economics degree and held a government job calculating GDP statistics, Mahfuz Mummed faced a quandary. He’d given eight years of loyal service when his bosses began pressuring his department to falsify data. Mummed watched as colleagues who protested faced violent reprisals. “I… Read More
Ethiopian Immigrant Fulfills Her Dream of Owning a Business
Rhoda Worku was a college student in Ethiopia when civil war broke out. Her father, a high-ranking member of the government, was executed and her mother was imprisoned. Eventually, Worku’s mother was released but life barely improved. “We didn’t have anything,” Worku says. “The government took everything from us.” In… Read More
Bolivian Immigrant Proud to Serve His New Country’s Air Force
Growing up in La Paz, Bolivia, Fernando Torrez was fascinated with American super hero cartoons. In 1996, when he was 12, his parents brought him and his older sister to Colorado in search of the American dream. There, he encountered real-life American heroes: cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Read More
Houston Public Media: How Does Immigration Impact Houston’s Economy?
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C. debate how to move forward with immigration policies, we take a look at how our economy is affected by immigrants. New American Economy is a coalition of mayors and business leaders from all over the country. They just released data on Greater Houston… Read More
Liberian Immigrant Serves Montana by Becoming Mayor of Its Capitol
Wilmot Collins knew nothing about cold weather. A Liberian, he had spent his life in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, at age 30, he was escaping civil war and moving to Montana, where his wife had spent a year during high school. So when a relative gave him two pairs of long… Read More
Filipino Immigrant Trains Lawyers to the Benefit of Montanans
Eduardo Capulong’s father, a prominent politician in the Philippines, had already endured one imprisonment when the family found their house ransacked by police and military forces one October evening. It was 1979, seven years after Ferdinand Marcos—notorious for torturing and killing his opponents—had imposed a martial-law dictatorship. “We fled here,”… Read More
Immigrant and Community Leader from Chile Paves the Way on Local Immigration Policy
Mirtha Becerra was born at the dawn of the Pinochet regime in Chile. When she was 11 years old, in the mid 1980s, her father, an architect, found himself unable to provide a good life for his family under the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and took a… Read More
New American Economy Statement on Failed Immigration Legislation in the House of Representatives
NEW YORK – “Today proves it’ll take votes from both sides of the aisle for this Congress to get to yes on an immigration deal,” said John Feinblatt, President of New American Economy. “The right step for the House now is a successful discharge petition that advances a bipartisan solution… Read More
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