American Immigration Council

Published on Wed, Aug 14, 2013

In their recent report, "Immigration Facts:  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals," the Brookings Institution cited the IPC's estimate of the number of potentially eligible DACA Recipients.

"Estimates of the potentially eligible population calculated by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) using age, country of birth, educational attainment and enrollment, and year of entry to the United States show approximately 936,000 immigrants were immediately eligible at the time of the announcement of the program. Eligibility criteria such as continuous residence and criminal history are much harder to approximate."

Published in the Brookings Institution

Published on Wed, Aug 07, 2013

Vivek Wadhwa, an advocate for reform of America's high-skilled immigration system, cited the IPC in a Washington Post article focusing on DREAMers:

"There are an estimated 1.8 million children in the U.S. who could be classified as “illegal aliens”, according to the Immigration Policy Center. They didn’t knowingly break any laws. Their parents brought them to this country to give them a better future. These “DREAMers” as they are called, grew up as Americans, believing they were entitled to the same rights and freedoms as their friends. But, because they don’t have the proper paperwork, they are forced to live in the shadows of society—as second-class human beings with limits on where they can work and study, and what they can do. Until recently, they would also fear being rounded up in the middle of the night to be deported to a land that they don’t even remember."

Published in the Washington Post

Published on Mon, Aug 05, 2013

In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Judy Rickard, who wrote the IPC publication, "Passport Pages Tell Our Tale," highlighted a report by the AIC.  The article, titled, "The Glass Wall That Divides Us," cites the IPC on the demographics of immigrants in the United States.

"Information from American Immigration Council shows that immigration (documented and undocumented) includes the following cultural and ethnic groups in these proportions:

Fewer than one-third (29 percent) of immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. Roughly 28 percent are from Asia, 24 percent from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean other than Mexico, 12 percent from Europe, and 4 percent from Africa. Moreover, contrary to some popular misconceptions, most Latinos in the United States (63 percent) are native-born -- not immigrants. And 29 percent of foreign-born Latinos are naturalized U.S. citizens."

Published in the Huffington Post

Published on Tue, Aug 06, 2013

An article in the California newspaper The Hanford Sentinel cited a number of resources from the Immigration Policy Center in an attempt to bust a number of immigration myths.  The article cites the recently posted California state fact sheet, a separate California fact sheet highlighting immigrants and innovation, and the recent report by Jack Strauss on Latino immigrants, African-Americans, and the myth that they are in competition for jobs.

"“Immigrant workers spend their wages in U.S. businesses,” said an Immigration Policy Center summary. “They buy food, clothes, appliances, cars and much more. Businesses respond to the presence of these new workers and consumers by investing in new restaurants, stores and production facilities. Immigrants also are 30 percent more likely than the native-born to start their own businesses. The end result is more jobs and more pay for more workers.”

What about immigrants’ effect on African-Americans? “Cities experiencing the highest rates of immigration tend to have relatively low or average unemployment rates for African-Americans,” Saint Louis University economist Jack Strauss concluded in an analysis of Census findings. “Cities with greater immigration from Latin America experience lower unemployment rates, poverty rates and higher wages among African-Americans.”

This may be counter-intuitive, but it’s probably because Latino newcomers and African-Americans don’t compete for the same jobs.

“Native-born workers take higher-paying jobs that require better English-language skills,” said the Immigration Policy Center report."

Published in the Hanford Sentinel

Published on Sun, Jul 28, 2013

The American Immigration Council's Executive Director, Benjamin Johnson, was published as a guest columnist for the Arizona Daily Star this weekend, in an article titled, "Legalizing Undocumented Immigrants Makes Economic Sense."

"The mass deportation of immigrants would cause a steep reduction in labor supply. Because labor is a key factor of production, a drastic reduction in its supply would in turn lead to a contraction of the state economy and a decline in overall state fiscal revenue.

Pull people out of the economy and it shrinks. In fact, more than 60 percent of all undocumented immigrants have been living and working in the state for more than a decade, which makes it even more destructive to the economy. Thus, 'deportation only' is anything but good policy.

What would happen if nothing changes? If we fail to reform the immigration system, we may not necessarily lose a lot from an economic perspective, but we stand to gain very little.

Immigrants, even the unauthorized, are already contributing to the state's economy. For example, immigrants already account for 15 percent of total economic output in the Phoenix metropolitan area, according to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute."

Published in the Arizona Daily Star

Published on Mon, Jul 29, 2013

The Washington Post's blog, The Fact Checker, recently cited the IPC in an article rating the factuality of recent statements from Congressman Steve King.  The article, which gave King "Four Pinocchios," said:

"In fact, King’s fact says much less than he thinks it does. Estimates suggest that there might be about 2 million people who could eventually be eligible under the DREAM Act, almost evenly split between men and women. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that 1,000 (1/20th of one percent) are valedictorians. That would mean King assumes 100,000–or one-tenth of all “DREAMers” or about 20 percent of the men—are drug smugglers.

But the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group, cites a 2007 study that found that “for every ethnic group, without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are the least educated. This holds especially true for the Mexicans, Salvadorians and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the unauthorized population.”"

Published in the Washington Post

Published on Fri, Jul 26, 2013

In a recent post in their "Political Diary," the Wall Street Journal cited a recent fact sheet from the IPC's senior researcher, Walter Ewing.  The post, which was refuting Iowa Representative Steve King's recent offensive comments about DREAMers, cited the fact sheet, "From Anecdotes to Evidence: Setting the Record Straight on Immigrants and Crime."

'"For every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are least educated," wrote Mr. Ewing in a 2007 study that he co-authored with Ruben Rumbaut. "This holds true especially for Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented population." By the way, these findings comport with federal and state studies going back a century. If anything, today's immigrants are less likely to be involved in criminal activity than their predecessors.'

Published in the Wall Street Journal

Published on Wed, Jul 24, 2013

The Washington Post draws attention to a recently-updated IPC Fact Sheet, "From Anecdotes to Evidence: Setting the Record Straight on Immigrants and Crime" to refute Rep. Steve King's claims about DREAMers being criminals.

The post reads:

"King has absolutely no proof for this disgusting, prejudiced statement. (Then again, one wonders what constitutes proof for a congressman who thinks snow disproves global warming.) As the Immigration Policy Center points out, using data from the census, the Pew Hispanic Center and the FBI, crime rates have fallen in the United States as the immigrant population (legal and illegal) has increased."

Published in the Washington Post

Published on Sat, Jul 13, 2013

In a Huffington Post Op-Ed by James Zogby, the President of the Arab American Institute, cited an IPC report on America's immigrant heritage.  He writes:

"Immigrants have always been derided as "lazy," "different and unable to fit in," and a "drain on the economy." This was said of the Irish, the Italians and the Eastern and Central Europeans. In a marvelous study compiled for the Immigration Policy Center, researcher Jeffrey Kaye compares the recent bigoted statements made by politicians in Hazleton, Pennsylvania (who are themselves descendants of immigrants) with the statements made about their ancestors when they first arrived in America, a century ago. They too were defamed as "lawbreakers," " a drain on public funds" and "not able to assimilate.""

Published in the Huffington Post