In a bid to apply upper-echelon pressure on the House of Representatives to pass immigration reform legislation, White House officials including President Obama himself have launched a sort of educational campaign to teach voters in each of the 50 states the economic impacts of comprehensive reform.
On Thursday the White House released a report on the specific economic benefits of fixing our country's broken immigration system. The report also reveals how immigration reform will help significantly in fixing the economy on a national level as well as state-by-state.
"The [administration] will use all of the tools in the toolbox we have to make the case to the public that immigration reform is right for the country," said Josh Earnest, White House principal deputy press secretary. "We anticipate making the case through August and every month moving forward."
The report released today starts out by explaining that American has always been a nation if immigrants and throughout U.S. history, immigrants from around the globe have helped to build the "greatest economic engine" in the world. But, the report points out, our nation's immigration system is broken and has not kept pace with changing times.
"Today too many employers game the system by hiring undocumented workers and there are 11 million people living and working in the 'shadow economy'," the report reads. "Neither is good for the U.S. economy or American families."
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act is what the White House calls "commonsense" legislation that was recently passed by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. The bill, eschewed by House GOP members particularly due to its promised pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, represents and opportunity for this country to modernize and update its broken system.
"To this end," the report reads, "The President urges the House of Representatives to take action and stands willing to work with all parties to make sure that commonsense immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible."
The White House report urges voters to understand that commonsense immigration reform will generate important economic benefits in each state. These benefits range from increasing workers' wages to generating new tax revenue to strengthening local industries that are the "backbone" of states' economies.
Click here to access the new state-by-state reports, which detail exactly how immigration reform would strengthen the economy in a neighborhood near you.
The report also indicates that immigration reform will create a stronger and more dynamic, faster-growing national economy that will undoubtedly foster job creativity, high productivity and wages and entrepreneurship, among other things.
"There is no question that commonsense immigration reform is just the right thing to do," said Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council. "But it is also very clear from a number of sources that it is the economically smart thing to do as well."
The White House report indicates that independent studies show commonsense immigration reform will strengthen the U.S. economy and create jobs. Some evidence to support this comes from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The CBO estimates that, relative to current law projections, enacting the Senate reform bill will increase national real GDP by 3.3 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2033. In other words, this would increase the size of the U.S. economy by nearly $700 billion in 2023 and $1.4 trillion in 2033 (in today's dollars).
Additionally, commonsense immigration reform would reportedly reduce the federal deficit and strengthen social security.
To back these claims up, the CBO found that enacting the Senate bill would reduce the federal budget deficit by nearly $850 billion over the next 20 years. Also, the independent Social Security Administration's Actuary estimates that the Senate bill would add almost $300 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund over the next decade.
Next case in point, according to the report commonsense immigration reform fosters innovation and encourages more job creation and job growth in the U.S. Recent studies have reportedly shown that immigrants promote productivity and innovation, directly and indirectly through "positive spillover effect" on American workers.
For example, the Fiscal Policy Institute found that in 2007, nationally, immigrant-owned small businesses generated $776 billion in receipts and employed approximately 4.7 million people.
The Partnership for a New American Economy found that immigrants started 28 percent of all new U.S. businesses in 2011, even though they only accounted for 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Also, it's noteworthy to point out that more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. These American companies reportedly represent 7 of the 10 most valuable global brands, collectively employ over 10 million people and generate annual revenues over $4.2 trillion.
The report winds down by pointing out that commonsense immigration reform will allegedly contribute to our housing market recovery and would strengthen the U.S. technology, agriculture and tourism industries, among others.
"there is such a strong economic logic for moving forward that the cost of inaction is very high economically, and I think the cost of inaction will be seen as very high politically as well," Sperling said.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
