A new University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) study suggests that immigration reform legislation that legalizes undocumented immigrants would boost the American economy.
The report said that legalization, along with a program that allows for future immigration based on the labor market, would create jobs, increase wages, and generate more tax revenue.
Comprehensive immigration reform would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years, according to the report.
The report was written by Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, an associate professor with the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Hinojosa-Ojeda based the study in part on surveys done on the 1986 legislation that resulted in the legalization of nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants. Those surveys showed that immigrants who were legalized moved on to better-paying jobs and more education, resulting in more spending and more tax revenue. ♦
Information from the LA Times contributed to this report.
taxpayer says
November 15, 2010 at 10:57 amI question the validity of a study done by the department of chicana and chicano studies at UCLA.
Anyone else think it might be just a trifle prejudicial?
William Turnbull says
November 12, 2010 at 5:08 amThe legalization of 3 million in 1986 has led to the illegal immigration of an additional 12 to 20 million now. A legalization of the 12 to 20 million here now illegally would further destroy our wages, drag down our economy and encourage even more illegal immigration in the future.
The report is nonsense but then it is exactly what your would expect from Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, an associate professor with the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
Do you really think this is an unbiased, newsworthy, study and report? You print too good a newspaper to print this kind of information. Your readers are smarter than that.