Council on Foreign Relations Calls for Sweeping Immigration Reform

July 8, 2009

Washington, DC - Today, the Council on Foreign Relations, one of the oldest and most respected non-partisan foreign policy think tanks in America, issued a sweeping report on U.S. immigration policy. Developed by an independent task force comprised of bi-partisan leaders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty, the report finds that the passage of comprehensive immigration reform is vital to the national interests of the United States. The report offers a number of specific recommendations to reform current policy, but most notably insists that the time is now to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Failure to do so, argues the task force, "threatens to weaken America's economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security."

The following is a statement by Mary Giovagnoli, Director of the Immigration Policy Center:

"That fact that the Council on Foreign Relation is examining U.S. immigration policy is a clear signal that immigration is now regarded as a matter of national security and international diplomacy, not only a domestic policy concern with broad economic implications. The Council on Foreign Relations' report states unequivocally that comprehensive immigration reform is not only good for America, but vital to our national interests. The report places the debate over comprehensive reform in a broader context, challenging Congress and the White House to move forward now on a sensible and thoughtful reform of our broken immigration system. The fact that a diverse group of leaders representing a range of political perspectives can reach consensus on immigration reform is not only a good sign, but an indication of just how critical immigration has become in efforts to maintain America's political, economic, and moral leadership in the world."

Immigration Impact

The Numbers Are In: Most Americans Want an Immigration Overhaul

By Seth Hoy, Immigration Impact
Posted on June 9, 2009, Printed on June 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140533/

Despite anti-immigrant groups repeated attempts to sway public opinion by scapegoating immigrants for the recession, new polling data suggests that the majority of likely voters actually support an overhaul of our broken immigration system--an overhaul that includes a path to citizenship for the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants living in America.

A recent survey by Benson Strategy Group--a group who conducts polling for President Obama and Fortune 100 Companies--found that 71% of likely voters think undocumented immigrants should take steps to become legal taxpayers Similarly, Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners said recent polling data suggests that voters want undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and on the books:

If anything, the economic climate has actually improved the environment for immigration reform, at least as far as the public is concerned. A salient issue is that reform would make immigrants all taxpayers. [Voters] want a level playing field and they don't have one today. There's a huge pool of workers that are playing by a different set of rules than they are.

This new polling data, along with other polling data, echoes what leading economists and experts have been saying since the beginning of our current recession--America needs to create more jobs, not less workers. Deporting millions of immigrants at the taxpayers' expense is clearly not a viable, cost-efficient or effective solution. Creating a functional immigration system, however, would go a long way in maintaining a balanced, stable and legal workforce that would help sustain our recovering economy. David Kallick, a Senior Fellow at the Fiscal Policy Institute, reinforces what many American are beginning to understand:

We've heard some people asking whether this is the right time for immigration reform...reform that leads to a better regulated system can only be good in an economic downturn...People don't just vanish, and just imagine what would be involved in driving out an estimated 10-12 million undocumented immigrants. What is real is the idea of bringing undocumented immigrants into the above ground economy, making sure they pay taxes just like everyone else.

In addition to newly generated tax revenue and a leveled playing field for all workers, legalizing undocumented immigrants would increase the contributions immigrants already make to the U.S. economy. The White House Council of Economic Advisors concluded in a 2007 report that the whole of immigration increases the U.S. GDP by roughly 37% billion each year because immigrants increase the size of the total labor force, complement the native-born workforce in terms of skills and education, and stimulate capital investment by adding workers to the labor pool.

Hopefully President Obama and members of Congress will remember these facts--and the 75% of respondents who support congressional action on immigration reform this year--when they meet on June 17th to discuss plans to move forward with immigration legislation.

Seth Hoy is a writer at Immigration Impact.