Thanks to the electoral drubbing Republicans took from Latino voters on Tuesday, it's looking increasingly likely Congress might actually tackle comprehensive immigration reform some time this year. House Speaker John Boehner suddenly likes the idea. Even Fox News' Sean Hannity is a convert.
Latest Politics Posts:
Loading feed...
That's delightful news for any number of reasons. If it happens, millions of hard working people will be able to step out of America's legal shadows. But almost as importantly, it might just give the U.S. economy a trillion-dollar shot in the arm, as explained in a report published by the left-leaning Center for American Progress in 2010.
To get that boost, we have to be smart about reform. CAP argues that a truly comprehensive program would create a path to citizenship for people who are already here and set flexible limits for future immigration, so that annual totals rise and fall with our demand for labor. They estimate that those policies would add $1.5 trillion to the economy over ten years, or about 0.84 percent to our annual GDP. Compare that to mass deportations which, by sending millions of individuals packing, would sap trillions from consumer spending and growth.