• Immigrants' Rights Update Index

Immigrants' Rights Update

Volume 20, Issue 5
September 29, 2006

IN THIS ISSUE

Facts about the Benefits of Immigration (Three Issue Briefs)

Issue Brief 1

     Immigrants make a variety of economic, social and cultural contributions to the United States. This fact sheet details the economic contributions of immigrants.  It finds that immigrants are net contributors to the economy and the Treasury and play an essential role in shoring up Social Security for future generations.  Expanding pathways to legal status for immigrants is a central element of what has come to be known as "comprehensive immigration reform."  One example of a more comprehensive approach, the legislation passed by the Senate (S 2611) would boost economic growth and improve the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund.
     The economic and fiscal benefits of immigration should not be the sole driver of immigration policy but are important to keep in mind, particularly because "some of the fundamental economics of immigration are too often obscured by misguided commentary."[1]  A lack of understanding about the economic and fiscal benefits of immigration has also led to misguided public policies that discriminate against immigrants despite their contributions.  For example, federal policies adopted in 1996 deny subsidized health insurance and other federal public benefits to many immigrant workers, even though they pay federal and state taxes that fund these benefits.  [Read more.]

Issue Brief 2

The Economic and Fiscal Effects of the Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006
  --By Shawn Fremstad

     A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted in favor of what the New York Times characterized as "a pre-election lineup of narrow enforcement measures packaged to give voters a false impression of resolve."[1]  Meanwhile, House leadership has eschewed meaningful reform of the nation’s broken legal immigration system, seeming to reserve particular disdain for the creation of any path to legal status for undocumented workers.  Most Americans, however, support providing new pathways to legal status for such workers.[2]
     Expanding pathways to legal status for undocumented immigrants has become a core element of what is known as "comprehensive immigration reform."  One example of a more comprehensive approach, the legislation passed by the Senate earlier this year (S 2611), includes enforcement provisions but would also reduce current family visa backlogs, provide new visas for certain "guest workers," and allow some currently undocumented people to obtain legal status after paying fines and passing criminal background checks.
     This report draws on government data and estimates to analyze the economic and fiscal effects of proposals to provide new pathways to legal status.  Estimates produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that the provisions of the Senate bill that create new pathways to legal immigration would result in increased federal tax revenues and economic growth.  Based on an analysis of the CBO data, a reasonable middle-ground estimate is that the Senate bill would increase the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) by around $36 billion a year over the next five years and by $134 billion a year in 2012-2016.  The actual benefits could be somewhat higher or lower, but there is little question that there would be net economic benefits.  [Read more.]

Issue Brief 3

     Low-income immigrants are less likely to receive means-tested public benefits than are low-income U.S. citizens.  Immigrants' low use of public benefits is not due solely to restrictions placed on their eligibility for various programs.  Even immigrants who are eligible are less likely to receive benefits than U.S. citizens.  This issue brief examines immigrants' use of health services and public benefits, and reviews some of the reasons why immigrants should be granted the same access to public benefits as U.S. citizens.    [Read more.]