By Jim Bloch
Donald Trump told a number of lies and peddled a number of half-truths about immigration during his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris.
CNN, in a preliminary analysis following the debate, found that Trump made “more than 30 false claims.”
Considering the debate ran about a half hour and Harris spoke half the time, that’s a lie every minute and a half.
“Harris was far more accurate that Trump,” CNN said, with “just one false claim from the vice-president, though she also added some claims that were misleading or lacking key content.”
Trump claimed that “millions of people (are) pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. You see what’s happening with towns and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans throughout the United States. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country. And they’re destroying our country… And we have to get them out. We have to get them out fast.”
In Part I, we saw that immigrants commit fewer violent crimes than native born Americans. In Part II, we’ll see that immigrants benefit the economy. For example, they contribute more tax money to all levels of government than they receive back in services. And they start twice as many businesses as native born citizens.
Immigration benefits the economy
Immigrants make up about 14 percent of the population, but account for about 17 percent of the gross domestic product, according to the Immigration Research Initiative.
One reason for that is a larger proportion of immigrants are of working age than the native-born U.S. population, which is aging out of the labor market. Population growth in the U.S. 2010-2020 was the slowest since the Great Depression, spurred in part by the declining birth rate of native born residents. When these demographic changes result in labor shortages, immigrants can fill the gaps.
For example, more “than 18 percent of health were born outside of the United States, including 26% of physicians, 16% of registered nurses, and 40% of home healthcare workers,” according to according to fwd.com, a bipartisan group that advocates immigration and criminal justice reform.
“We’ve had a record volume of migration since 2022,” said Pia Orrenius, a labor economist serving as vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank at Dallas, who participated with Nancy Foner, professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College, in a presentation July 16 to SciLine, the scientifically grounded reporting resource for journalists. “Official data has been slow to catch up to the surging inflows along the southwest border… but just like earlier migration though, the effects of the economy are pretty straightforward. Migration boosts economic growth because it’s population growth and it’s labor force growth, and with little impact on inflation.”
The net impact of immigrants on government revenue has been positive even when only refugees and asylum seekers are considered.
From 2005-2019, “The net fiscal impact of refugees and asylees was positive over the 15-year period, at $123.8 billion,” according to a study for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. “This means that refugees and asylees contributed more revenue than they cost in expenditures to the government. The net fiscal benefit to the federal government was estimated at $31.5 billion, and the net fiscal benefit to state and local governments was estimated at $92.3 billion.”
Immigrants are not taking jobs from African American workers or any other American native.
A study by the American Enterprise Institute found, for example, “no evidence that foreign born workers, taken in the aggregate, hurt US employment.” Hiring 100 H-1B workers, which allows employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that usually require advanced degrees and skills, creates an additional 183 jobs for U.S. natives; H-1B visas constitute the largest category of guest worker in the country. Hiring 100 H-2B workers results in the creation of 464 jobs for U.S. natives; H-2B allows the hiring on foreign born workers for temporary nonagricultural work in field like construction, landscaping and hospitality.
Immigrants start new businesses at twice the rate of native born people. Close to half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list in 2023 were started by immigrants or their progeny.
“Immigration strengthens the U.S. economy and contributes to greater prosperity for all Americans,” said fwd.com. “Immigrants help create jobs, raise wages, reduce inflation, and increase productivity and innovation. Immigrants boost virtually every sector of the economy, and they play particularly important roles in critical sectors like healthcare, food production and agriculture, construction, and emerging fields like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
