The White House released a report on Tuesday listing the economic benefits to earned citizenship for the undocumented immigrants in the US, which included an increase of $1.4 trillion in GDP and about 2 million more jobs.
The report also details that over a course of 10 years, providing only legal status and not citizenship to current workers who are undocumented would result in $568 less GDP and 820,000 less jobs, with tax revenue losing out on $75 billion.
“Now that we have immigration reform through the Senate in the United States, we can actually measure what economists have agreed on, which is that the economic benefits of the immigration bill are very strong,” said Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
The report argues that the “legalization-only” approach violates equal rights to people that pay taxes and play by the same rules, and should allow these undocumented workers to be American citizens after willing to work for it and accepting the full responsibilities of citizenship.
It also suggests that citizenship is more appealing to employers and the economy, as it would be an investment having long-term employees with a stronger desire to pursue education and training to start a business.
“The economic benefits of immigration are really abundantly clear,” says Muñoz. “They can be quantified now, and we think this is going to contribute to conversation about getting this done in the House of Representatives and getting it to the president’s desk.”
The numbers don’t lie. What’s important to note is that they were comprised by a non partisan group, so both parties can’t deny the accuracy.