Immigration Reform Would Yield $1.5 Trillion Benefit
A new study by UCLA professor Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda indicates that immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for the undocumented would raise wages, create jobs, increase consumption, and generate additional tax revenue. Based on the outcome of the 1986 legalization program, the report estimates that immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.
The economic benefits of a legalization program and the shared economic interest in progressive immigration reform are of no surprise. Since 2005, DMI has argued that current immigration policy fails America's middle class because it is disconnected from our nation's economic reliance on documented and undocumented immigrants, and threatens to undermine the middle class because the exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers drives labor standards down for current and aspiring middle-class Americans
Immigration policy that 1) bolsters the economic contributions of immigrants, and 2) strengthens the rights of immigrants in the workplace would advance the economic situation of current and aspiring middle class Americans.