A new study by the Levy Economics Institute at BardCollege in New York maintain that the economic benefits of amnesty for illegal aliens would outweigh the costs. It contends, says the Phoenix Business Journal 8/7/13, that legalized unauthorized immigrants would leave under-the-table jobs and start paying Social Security and other taxes, get better paying jobs and spend [money] . . . .”
Fact Check: This is another one of those “studies” making the preposterous claim that granting amnesty to illegal aliens will somehow enrich our economy. All it will do is enrich the profiteers who benefit from cheap illegal labor and want to keep it coming.
The claims of this study simply ignore basic realities. A leading case in point is the notion that illegal aliens, upon getting legal status, will provide a net fiscal benefit to society because they will be able then to get “better paying jobs” and therefore be able to pay more taxes.
The first reality this claim ignores is that the average illegal alien only has a tenth grade education. The writer of the study evidently doesn’t understand that there are a very limited opportunities for high school drop-outs to get “better paying” jobs. And in point of fact, with more than 20 million Americans unable to find a full-time employment, it’s not so easy for U.S. high school and college grads to find jobs that pay well.
With amnestied illegal aliens still earning low wages, they at the same time would gain access to a wide array of welfare programs that they can’t legally access now.
To the extent that amnestied illegal aliens can compete for “better paying” employment, they will come into direct competition with native-born Americans seeking this work. That means unemployment for some of those American—and the increased competition will mean lower wages for everyone. A lower wage workforce means a lower tax base.
A study that fully analyzed the fiscal impact of amnesty for illegal aliens was that of the Heritage Foundation published earlier this year. It found that amnesty would cause a net fiscal loss of 6.3 trillion over the next 50 years. It’s not good deal for America.