Immigration Policy Center

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

The Immigration Policy Center, based in the nation's capital, pulled together immigration data from a variety of sources. Then it released fact sheets for all 50 states.

The center's Wendy Sefsaf says the study concludes that, if all undocumented workers were booted out of the Northwest immediately, the economic impact would be huge.

Wendy Sefsaf: "The undocumented are part of our workforce and they're people who buy and consume goods. So if you get rid of them, there's less consumers, which means there's less money going into an economy that supports those jobs."

The center's study concludes illegal immigrants have a bigger economic impact in Washington than in other Northwest states. Regionwide, the research estimates spending by undocumented workers is responsible for about 90-thousand jobs.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates five percent of Oregon workers are undocumented, compared to about three percent in Washington and Idaho.

Published in the NPR KPLU

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

An immigration think tank in Washington Wednesday released a report showing the impact of immigrants on the nation and individual states.

The Immigration Policy Center said its complete series of 50 state fact sheets highlight the political and economic power of immigrants, Latinos and Asians in every state of the union, who account for large and growing shares of the U.S. economy and electorate.

Overall, immigrants made up more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, or nearly 38 million people, in 2008, the report said.

Published in the United Press International

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

Seeking to insert "fact into a fact-free debate" about immigration, the Immigration Policy Center Wednesday unveiled statistical data for all 50 states highlighting Latino and Asian immigrants' political and economic power in American life.

"Facts are sadly lacking in the immigration debate," Mary Giovagnoli, director of the center, a pro-immigrant research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council, said in a conference call with reporters.

The policy center, based in Washington, D.C., compiled "fact sheets" for all 50 states and the District of Columbia from academic studies and government databases. They can be found at www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts.

Published in the Newsday

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

The Immigration Policy Center on Wednesday released its complete series of 50 state fact sheets which highlight the political and economic power of immigrants, Latinos and Asians in every state of the union.

Here are the results for how immigrants affect Idaho.

Published in the Sun Valley Online

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

• As of June 30, bills similar to Arizona's law had been introduced in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Michigan.
• In the first half of the year, 44 state legislatures passed 191 laws and adopted 128 resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees, with governors vetoing five of the bills. This was a 21 percent increase in enacted laws and resolutions from the same time period in 2009.
• Most of the state legislation addresses employment, law enforcement and identification.
• In all of 2009 more than 1,500 bills were introduced in state legislatures related to immigration, compared to 300 in 2005.
• Immigrants made up more than 12 percent of the U.S. population in 2008 and the foreign-born share of Arizona's population was 14.3 percent that year. In California, which is also on the border, foreign-born residents make up more than a quarter of the population. Latinos make up the biggest group.
• The Latino share of Arizona's population was 30.1 percent in 2008. In neighboring Texas, Latinos made up 36.5 percent of the population and in California they made up 32.4 percent. In New Mexico, they represented nearly 45 percent of the population.

Published in the Reuters

Published on Tue, Jul 27, 2010

Giovagnoli said the Republican Senators are helping “perpetuate an urban legend of massive proportions,” calling the idea that the president could use some sort of backdoor method to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, “extremely far fetched.”

“The resources and tools needed to make something like this happen just aren’t there, especially because any kind of mass program like the one envisioned in this letter would essentially require a registration and reviewing process to determine who was actually qualified to remain,” Giovagnoli said in a piece last month for AlterNet.org. “Absent legislative action, the financial resources needed to carry out something of this scope would be difficult to procure.”

Published in the Iowa Independent

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Immigrants — both legal and illegal — are surprisingly important to Utah's economy and future, according to a new compilation of data about them.

The Immigration Policy Center, a Washington-based research group, spent a year looking at academic studies and U.S. Census Bureau data about immigrants in each state, and released fact sheets for each on Wednesday.

"Facts are sadly lacking in the immigration debate," said Mary Giovagnoli, director of the center. She said too many people "seek to manipulate information to project an image of immigrants — both those here legally and illegally — as drains on society who make no positive contributions. The facts demonstrate something entirely different."

Published in the Desert News

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

"The consensus from most of my colleagues is that it probably will go to the Supreme Court," said Mo Goldman, an immigration attorney in Tucson, Ariz., and a board member of the American Immigration Council.

AIC's Goldman, who applauded the decision, conceded the law was popular but said a backlash "remains to be seen."

"I think the majority of people just want to see our immigration system fixed by Congress and maybe this law ... will put additional pressure on Congress to get the job done, finally," he said.

Published in the Investors Business Daily

Published on Tue, Jul 27, 2010

Others say the Fremont City Council is right to look at the costs associated with enacting any kind of legislation.

“Good public policy involves weighing all the costs and benefits of enacting legislation," says Mary Giovagnoli of the American Immigration Council's Immigration Policy Center. "While Fremont may be motivated in this case to suspend the law because of the fear of litigation costs, there are numerous other costs to consider," she says, "including the loss of revenue to the town when people leave, stop supporting local businesses and paying taxes, as well as the psychological impact when a town goes down the road of driving people away."

Published in the Christian Science Monitor

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

Of course, that’s not counting illegal immigrants — DHS estimated 10.8 people were living in the U.S. illegally in 2009. But advocates of higher quotas argue that increasing the number of people who could legally enter the U.S. would also decrease illegal immigration. “We have a fundamental problem as a country accepting the idea that we need immigration numbers,” Mary Giovagnoli, director of Immigration Policy Center told TWI. “If we had a legal immigration system that worked, it would reduce the incentive for illegal immigration.”

Published in the Washington Independent