Immigration Lawyer Touts Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform

Added: (Mon Mar 01 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Houston-area immigration lawyer Annie Banerjee touts the economic benefits of comprehensive immigration reform while bolstering her argument by listing the merits of a new report from the Immigration Reform Policy Center.

A new report from the Immigration Policy Center, Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform by Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, finds that comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) which includes a legalization program for unauthorized immigrants would result in a large economic benefit -- $1.5 trillion in additional U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 10 years. Conversely, continuation of an enforcement-only policy would result in a loss of $2.6 trillion over 10 years.

“Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda’s research model takes into account the higher earning power of workers who recently achieved citizenship,” said Annie Banerjee, Houston-area immigration lawyer. “He also discusses how this translates into increased tax revenues.” The increased tax revenues described in Hinojosa-Ojeda’s research are quite substantial – between $4.5 -$5.4 billion over three years.

“Higher personal income also means more spending,” Banerjee asserted, “and that kind of dynamic supports more jobs.” Again, Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda’s research concurs. Higher personal income would generate increased consumer spending to a surprising extent – enough to sustain 750,000-900,000 additional U.S. jobs. “Increased income allows legal workers to open bank accounts, buy homes, and start businesses – all of which serve to jumpstart the U.S. economy,” Banerjee explained.

A key component to such a policy as Hinojosa-Ojeda proposed would be a legalization program. His research demonstrated that the real wages of less-skilled newly legalized workers would increase by approximately $4,405 per year, while higher-skilled workers would see their income increase $6,185 per year. The wages of native-born U.S. workers also increases under comprehensive immigration reform because the “wage floor” rises for all workers, particularly in industries where large numbers of easily exploited, low-wage unauthorized immigrants currently work. Wages for less-skilled, native-born U.S. workers would increase by approximately $162 per year, and the wages of higher-skilled U.S. workers would increase by approximately $74 per year.

“This kind of logic so counterintuitive to so many Americans exposed to anti-immigrant rhetoric and diatribes is seldom mentioned by the corporate-driven mainstream media,” Banerjee concludes.