Reframing immigration

Immigration is back in the news, but a key point is getting obscured: our immigration policy fails current middle-class Americans because it is disconnected from our economic reliance on unauthorized immigrants. At the same time, the status quo perpetuates an underground labor market threatening wages and employment conditions of the aspiring middle class.

The national immigration debate needs to be reframed in terms of how policy impacts the millions of people trying to attain or hold onto a middle-class standard of living.

{mosads}Current and aspiring middle-class Americans depend on the goods and services immigrants produce and consume and the businesses they run. They benefit from the billions in property, sales, payroll, and income taxes that all immigrants pay. Proponents of harsh anti-immigrant crackdowns and enforcement measures ignore this reality.

As Republicans and Democrats reconsider a timeline for comprehensive immigration reform, they must acknowledge the urgency of making the case to middle-class Americans that an immigration overhaul would benefit the entire country and even help drive economic recovery.

The President’s Council on Economic Advisors has concluded that U.S. natives gain $37 billion a year from immigrants’ economic contributions. On the local level, the importance of these contributions is undeniable: Research finds the cities that experienced big influxes of low and high-income immigrant workers enjoyed the fastest economic growth over the past two decades.

So members of Congress must explain the benefits of providing a path to legal status for the 12 million unauthorized immigrants already working here, paying taxes, and contributing to our economy. And they must emphasize that middle-class Americans reap tremendous economic gains from immigrants’ consumption. Far from stealing jobs from citizens, the demand generated by immigrant consumers creates jobs for native-born Americans that wouldn’t exist at all if they weren’t here — an advantage the nation can’t afford to pass up during high unemployment.

Only an earned legalization program would enable the country to maximize the contributions of millions of immigrants already participating in our economy. Without secure legal status, immigrants earn less, pay fewer taxes, and cannot spend or invest as much in our communities. If we keep unauthorized immigrants in the shadows, we limit middle-class prosperity and growth.

Earned legalization would also curb the large underground labor market that makes it harder for struggling American workers to earn a middle-class standard of living. It’s too easy for unscrupulous employers to use the threat of deportation to intimidate unauthorized immigrant workers, ensuring they won’t complain about poor wages or unsafe working conditions. Several recent nonpartisan studies confirm violations of minimum wage, overtime and workplace safety laws are pervasive in the nation’s immigrant-dominated low-wage industries.

Exploiting unauthorized workers threatens to reduce pay for native-born workers, too, especially those with little education: As their employers are forced to compete with companies that exploit immigrants, entire industries might see wages decline. As a result, not only are many immigrant workers trapped in poverty, but Americans aspiring to a middle-class standard of living find that good jobs have been downgraded. If American workers don’t accept the same poor conditions and bad jobs as immigrants living under threat of deportation, they can be shut out of entire industries. Earned legalization will increase the ability of unauthorized immigrants to stand up for their workplace rights and build coalitions with native-born workers to improve job quality.

Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-S.C.) call to perfect border security before acting to repair broken immigration laws is a red herring. The Obama administration is already spending billions on border security and increasing deportations and enforcing existing immigration laws—all to the economic detriment of the country. We need real reform that allows unauthorized immigrants to earn legal status without excessive barriers. That would strengthen and expand the middle class.

Congress and the Obama administration must focus less on pursuing costly enforcement and border security measures and more on telling middle-class Americans that our economic well-being depends on the contributions of immigrants, while the quality of our jobs is contingent on the ability of everyone working in America to enjoy the full protection of our workplace laws.

Immigration reform shouldn’t be a divisive issue or one pollsters and pundits frame in terms of winning Latino votes: It should be all about boosting the current and aspiring middle class.

Traub is director of research at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Branche is an immigration analyst at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.