por Luis Carlos López
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A major immigration study released here this month by political economist Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda is helping trigger new efforts to move a comprehensive immigration bill onto Congress’s front burner.
The national policy review states that implementing a program to bring the nation’s estimated 11.9 million undocumented residents onto a path to legalization would create $1.5 trillion in U.S. economic growth over the next ten years.
Hinojosa-Ojeda’s research is receiving world wide attention, with positive reaction and recognition among several influential U.S. policymakers, plus a few brickbats from anti-immigration forces, he told Hispanic Link News Service. It is stirring thousands of blogosphere debates.
Following a well-attended news conference here, the University of California at Los Angeles professor met with interested Administration and World Bank officials, hosted a briefing for 50 congressional staffers, shared findings from his multi-year project in detail with D.C. think tank brain trusts, and held additional one-on-ones with international and domestic media.
The assessment, “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefit of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” compressed to 25 pages for mass distribution, projects that legalizing undocumented immigrants, in combination with a program that allows for a future immigration flow based on labor market needs, is far more pragmatic and profitable than any alternative deportation-only scheme being promoted by some members of Congress.
“If we pursue a deportation-only policy, it will drain our already anemic economy by $2.6 trillion over the next ten years and cost billions to implement,” Hinojosa-Ojeda, who serves as executive director of the North American Integration and Development Center, affi rmed. He called undocumented immigrants “a hidden economic engine” that is constantly being repressed, maintaining, “Legalization empowers workers immediately to become much more committed and integrated in the economy.”
The report was released Jan. 6 to the press by the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center, and discussed with a panel of economic and social strategy experts.
Hinojosa-Ojeda told Hispanic Link his organization will continue encouraging and producing community impact studies, suggesting that any on the effect of workplace raids on the welfare of communities where they were conducted could prove of particular value. He said he anticipates communities nationwide to use the report’s data to construct actions that will benefi t them. Among the report’s other fi ndings:
• Contrary to public perception, low-wage workers will benefi t from legalization of undocumented workers.
• The number of unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States has increased dramatically since the 1990s from an estimated 3.5 million to its present total, estimated at nearly 12 million.
• Despite the huge increase in federal funding for border security — a 714 percent growth since 1992 — the apprehension rate for undocumented immigrants has declined since 2001.
• Increased border enforcement does not effectively deter undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.
• A massive deportation strategy creates other negative consequences. With tougher enforcement, fatalities along deserts and other dangerous crossing areas increase; the underground market for smugglers places further stress on the immigrants, and unfair labor practices continue to exploit undocumented workers.
These issues, Hinojosa-Ojeda said, would be mitigated with legalization reform.
At the study’s release, Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, echoed Hinojosa-Ojeda’s conclusions by presenting the institute’s recent finding on the economic benefits of legalization.
Both studies concluded that increased enforcement and reduced low-skill immigration will have a negative impact on the income of all households.
“I think it is very significant that two independent studies came to the same conclusion,” Griswold said. “The common feature is that legalization provides better jobs for middle-class Americans.”
Hinojosa-Ojeda confirmed that sparked a lot of negative commentary along the right-wing media, particularly criticism from blogs.
“It’s creating a massive buzz on the right wing but they haven’t been able to negate the fundamentals,” he said.
In addition to Hinojosa-Ojeda and Griswold, other experts weighed in on the benefits of legalization were Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, and Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council.
The panel was moderated by Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the Center of American Progress Angela Kelley.
For the complete report visit: http://immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/raising-floor-american-workers.
