Study: Legalizing Illegal Aliens Will Boost U.S. Economy

Legalizing the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants will greatly help American workers and boost the U.S. economy, according to a new report released this week by a prominent Chicano Studies professor at a major public university in California. 

Unlike the existing enforcement-only strategy (referred to as a “vicious cycle”), comprehensive immigration reform will raise the so-called “wage floor” for the entire U.S. economy and benefit both immigrant and native-born workers, the extensive national study found. This will inevitably create a “virtuous cycle” of worker empowerment in which legal status and labor rights exert upward pressure on wages. 

If these preliminary findings sound like a crock—financed with tax dollars, no less—take a look at the entire report (Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform) because its comically entertaining argument for immigration reform only gets better. The masterpiece is the fine work of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Chicano Studies guru Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda. 

Not surprisingly, immigration advocates nationwide are heavily promoting the study as evidence of illegal immigrants’ positive contributions to American society. After all, the Chicano professor and his researchers found that legalizing undocumented workers will yield $1.5 trillion to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is a basic measure of a country’s overall economic output. 

Over a decade, the study found, this will generate billions in additional tax revenue and consumer spending as well as support hundreds of thousands of jobs. On the other hand, the U.S. would suffer greatly if it deported all illegal immigrants, the Chicano professor assures, because it would reduce the GDP by $2.6 trillion over ten years.  

Besides, America’s current enforcement-only immigration policy is costly, ineffective and counterproductive. It’s actually wasted billions of taxpayer dollars and pushed unauthorized migration further underground, the study found. It points out that even though tens of billions of dollars have been poured into the U.S. Border Patrol, Mexicans somehow find a way to make it north. 

So there you have it. The U.S. should eliminate the Border Patrol and move quickly to legalize millions of undocumented aliens who have violated federal law and inevitably countless local statutes. It’s guaranteed to help lay the foundation for robust, just and widespread economic growth, according to the laughable UCLA report.