There have been countless analyses from a slew of organizations on the economic impact of immigration reform. By and large, most of them concluded that immigration reform would have a net positive effect and be a boon to the American economy.
A new nonpartisan report from the Congressional Budget Office has found that we would have enormous savings to the federal budget if the immigration bill becomes law.
Under the report, about 8 million undocumented immigrants would be eligible for the bill’s path to citizenship.
Over the decade following the enactment of the immigration bill, $197 billion would be cut from our national deficit. A further $700 billion would be saved in the following 10 years after that.
Shortly after the report was released, the White House issued a statement saying that it was “more proof that bipartisan commonsense immigration reform will be good for economic growth and deficit reduction.”
Senator Marco Rubio also applauded the report, stating that “the CBO report offers encouraging evidence that the status quo is unacceptable and we can end it without burdening our already burdened taxpayers and, in fact, reduce the deficit over the next 20 years.”
The report found that the bill would increase the size of the labor force, increase average wages after 2025, boost capital investment, and raise productivity and capital.
A second report from the CBO determined that “CBO and JCT (Joint Committee on Taxation) expect that new immigrants of working age would participate in the labor force at a higher rate, on average, than other people in that age range in the United States.”
In addition, by 2025 wages on average would go up 0.5 percent “primarily because the bill would boost the productivity of labor and capital.”
