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Intro: Agriculture
Farmers across the country depend on temporary labor to help grow their crops and their businesses. Immigrants help fill these vital positions, creating an additional 2 to 3 jobs for domestic-born workers in industries such as food packaging, shipping, and farming supplies. For many farms across the country, there are simply not enough native-born workers to […]
Read MoreThe Power of Reform: CBO Report Quantifies the Economic Benefits of the Senate Immigration Bill
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the fiscal and economic effects of the Senate immigration reform bill (S. 744) would be overwhelmingly positive. If enacted, the bill would help reduce the federal budget deficit by approximately $1 trillion over 20 years, would boost the U.S. economy as whole without negatively affecting U.S. workers, and would greatly reduce future undocumented immigration. These are the conclusions laid out in three reports released in June and July 2013. On June 18, the CBO issued two reports on the version of S. 744 that was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 28. The first one analyzes (or “scores”) the fiscal impact of the bill over the next 20 years and the second one focuses on the impact that some aspects of the bill would have on the U.S. economy. On July 3, the CBO issued a revised score on the version of the bill that passed the Senate on June 27. This version includes the Corker-Hoeven “border surge” amendment, which calls for a significant increase in border-enforcement spending.
What is a CBO score and what are its main implications?
Nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee of either house of Congress is subject to a formal cost estimate by the CBO. The report produced as a result of this analysis is known as the CBO “score.” The purpose of this analysis is to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on a wide assortment of programs covered by the federal budget. In general, the CBO estimates what the net fiscal impact of a bill would be, considering both the costs and the benefits associated with its implementation.
CBO Gives High Marks to Senate Immigration Bill
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its much-anticipated “scoring,” or cost estimate, of the Senate immigration bill. Overall, the numbers are good. Very good. The CBO projects 20 years ahead and predicts fiscal savings in the amount of roughly $1 trillion. In addition, the CBO explained in a separate report that the bill would […]
Read MoreAmerica’s Assimilating Hispanics
The Wall Street Journal June 17, 2013 As immigration reform moves through Congress, one claim by opponents is that this time immigration is different because the country’s latest arrivals aren’t assimilating. On the contrary, however, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that today’s immigrants are acculturating and moving up the economic ladder like previous generations. The media’s […]
Read MoreBusting the Myth of the “Job Stealing” Immigrant
Some critics of the immigration bill now winding its way through the Senate claim that it would increase unemployment among native-born workers—especially minorities—by adding more immigrants to an already tight job market. In fact, both the legalization and “future flow” provisions of the bill would empower immigrant workers to spend more, invest more, and pay […]
Read MoreThe Economic Blame Game: Immigration and Unemployment
One of the most persistent myths about the economics of immigration is that every immigrant added to the U.S. labor force amounts to a job lost by a native-born worker, or that every job loss for a native-born worker is evidence that there is need for one less immigrant worker. However, this is not how labor-force dynamics work in the real world. The notion that unemployed natives could simply be “swapped” for employed immigrants is not economically valid. In reality, native workers and immigrant workers are not easily interchangeable. Even if unemployed native workers were willing to travel across the country or take jobs for which they are overqualified, that is hardly a long-term strategy for economic recovery.
There is no direct correlation between immigration and unemployment.
Allies, Not Enemies: How Latino Immigration Boosts African American Employment and Wages
Latino immigrants and African Americans fill complementary roles in the labor market—they are not simply substitutes for one another.
Read MoreUtah business leaders push for immigration reform
Emilee Eagar, Deseret News SALT LAKE CITY — Utah business leaders are telling Utah’s senators and representatives that now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform. The Partnership for a New American Economy, Salt Lake Chamber and 48 people in the business community signed their names to an open letter addressed to Sen. Orrin Hatch, […]
Read MoreThree Ways Immigration Reform Would Make the Economy More Productive
By David Dyssegaard Kallick, Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Immigration Research Initiative. A report just released by the Fiscal Policy Institute, Three Ways Immigration Reform Would Make the Economy More Productive shows that legalization of undocumented immigrants, done right, would do three things to increase economic productivity in the United States.
Read MoreHow Immigrant Entrepreneurs Fare in the New Immigration Bill
With the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote last week to pass S.744 on to the Senate floor, a new proposal for spurring immigrant entrepreneurship and innovation will be before Congress. Title IV, Subtitle H of the bill creates the INVEST visa (Investing in New Venture, Entrepreneurial Startups, and Technologies) for immigrant entrepreneurs. This new visa program […]
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