Bi-partisan groups are looking into the Senate’s immigration reform bill, and they keep finding the same thing: immigration reform is good for America’s economic future.
As highlighted previously on our blog, several reputable organizations have come out saying that immigration reform and immigrants will be a huge boost to the economy and U.S. programs. Just a few examples:
- $115 Billion for U.S. Medicare
- $500 Billion for U.S. Housing Industry
- $242 Billion for Social Security
This week, another massive win for U.S. immigrants and immigration reform came from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan organization in charge of assessing the economic impact of congressional bills, including the Gang of 8’s comprehensive immigration reform bill. Opponents of immigration reform were hopeful that a non-partisan analysis of immigration’s cost to society would bring more support to their side. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) even asked the director of the CBO to extend their analysis from the first 10 years to the first 20 years after CIR passes, assuming the negative results of immigration would become even clearer as time went on.
To the disappointment of Sen. Sessions and many other anti-immigrant advocates, the CBO report shows that the passage of the immigration reform bill would reduce the deficit by $175 billion in the next 10 years and by more than $700 billion over the next 20 years.
The CBO report also states that over time, comprehensive immigration reform will result in wage increases for all American workers, an increase in the U.S. GDP, and an overall increase in U.S. labor productivity.
The CBO report confirms that immigrants would replenish the U.S. economy at a time when resources such as Medicare and Social Security are being drained due to an aging native population. Young, able-bodied immigrants would bring much needed revenue to federal programs that are in danger of going bankrupt. Even more importantly, they changes are sustainable: growth is shown to continue for decades after the initial passing of immigration reform.
Read the full Congressional Budget Office report here and check out the visualization of the CBO report data from the New York Times.
