Just the Facts

In Iowa, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives.

Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Iowa’s economy.

• From 2006 to 2010, there were 4,823 new immigrant business owners in Iowa, and in 2010, 3.1 percent of all business owners in the state were foreign-born.

• In 2010, new immigrant business owners had a total net business income of $215.8 million, which is 2.8 percent of all net business income in the state.

Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Iowa’s innovation economy.Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 | Download File

In Indiana, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives.

Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Indiana’s economy.

• From 2006 to 2010, there were 11,995 new immigrant business owners in Indiana, and in 2010, 5.2 percent of all business owners in Indiana were foreign-born.

• In 2010, new immigrant business owners had total net business income of $721.6 million, which is 5.6 percent of all net business income in the state.

Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Indiana’s innovation economy.Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 | Download File

In Arkansas, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives.

Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Arkansas’ economy.

• From 2006 to 2010, there were 6,171 new immigrant business owners in Arkansas, and in 2010, 5 percent of all business owners in the state were foreign-born.

• In 2010, new immigrant business owners had total net business income of $286.7 million, which is 4.7 percent of all business income in the state.

• Arkansas had a 160 percent increase in Hispanic-owned businesses, growing from 2,094 businesses in 2002 to 5,457 in 2007, according to Census Bureau data.

Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Arkansas’ innovation economy.Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 | Download File

In Alabama, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives.

Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Alabama’s economy.

• From 2006 to 2010, there were 7,968 new immigrant business owners in Alabama, and in 2010, 4.6 percent of all business owners in the state were foreign-born.

• In 2010, new immigrant business owners had total net business income of $337.3 million, which is 3.4 percent of all net business income in the state.

• According to the Fiscal Policy Institute: “It is interesting to note that Alabama ranks toward the bottom of the list of immigrant share of population (3 percent) and labor force (4 percent), but is in the top half of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia (at 20th) in the ratio of foreign-born share of business owners to U.S.-born share. In Alabama, immigrant workers are 10 percent more likely than U.S.-born counterparts to be small business owners.”

Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Alabama’s innovation economy.Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 | Download File

In Ohio, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives.

Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Ohio’s economy.

• From 2006 to 2010, immigrants founded 20,768 businesses in Ohio, and in 2010, 6.7 percent of all business owners in Ohio were foreign-born.

• In 2010, new immigrant business owners had total net business income of $1.3 billion, which is 5.7 percent of all net business income in the state.

• Immigrant entrepreneurs have contributed to Ohio’s economy throughout the state’s history, founding such companies as Proctor & Gamble and Eaton Corporation. Other Ohio-based Fortune 500 companies had at least one immigrant or child of an immigrant co-founder, including Kroger, Limited Brands, Big Lots, and Owens-Illinois.

Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Ohio’s innovation economy.Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 | Download File

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the fiscal and economic effects of the Senate immigration reform bill (S. 744) would be overwhelmingly positive. If enacted, the bill would help reduce the federal budget deficit by approximately $1 trillion over 20 years, would boost the U.S. economy as whole without negatively affecting U.S. workers, and would greatly reduce future undocumented immigration. These are the conclusions laid out in three reports released in June and July 2013. On June 18, the CBO issued two reports on the version of S. 744 that was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 28. The first one analyzes (or “scores”) the fiscal impact of the bill over the next 20 years and the second one focuses on the impact that some aspects of the bill would have on the U.S. economy. On July 3, the CBO issued a revised score on the version of the bill that passed the Senate on June 27. This version includes the Corker-Hoeven “border surge” amendment, which calls for a significant increase in border-enforcement spending.

What is a CBO score and what are its main implications?

Nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee of either house of Congress is subject to a formal cost estimate by the CBO. The report produced as a result of this analysis is known as the CBO “score.” The purpose of this analysis is to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on a wide assortment of programs covered by the federal budget. In general, the CBO estimates what the net fiscal impact of a bill would be, considering both the costs and the benefits associated with its implementation.Read more...

Published On: Thu, Jun 20, 2013 | Download File

Contrary to the claims of critics, the immigration bill now winding its way through the Senate would not add to the ranks of the unemployed. In fact, both the legalization and “future flow” provisions of the bill would empower immigrant workers to spend more, invest more, and pay more in taxes—all of which would create new jobs. Put differently, employment is not a “zero sum” game in which workers compete for some fixed number of jobs. All workers are also consumers, taxpayers, and—in many cases—entrepreneurs who engage in job-creating economic activity every day.

Nevertheless, one of the most persistent myths about the economics of immigration is that every immigrant added to the U.S. labor force amounts to a job lost by a native-born worker, or that every job loss for a native-born worker is evidence that there is need for one less immigrant worker. However, this is not how labor-force dynamics work in the real world. The notion that unemployed natives could simply be “swapped” for employed immigrants is not economically valid. In reality, native workers and immigrant workers are not easily interchangeable. Even if unemployed native workers were willing to travel across the country or take jobs for which they are overqualified, that is hardly a long-term strategy for economic recovery.

There is no direct correlation between immigration and unemployment.Read more...

Published On: Wed, Jun 12, 2013 | Download File

One of the explicit goals of the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act’’ (S.744) is to curtail future flows of unauthorized immigration by correcting some of the flaws of the current legal immigration system. To that end, it establishes an updated system of legal immigration that, in principle, seeks to match the country’s economic and labor needs while respecting principles of family unification.

The regulation of future flows is key to the success of immigration reform because the economy is one of the primary drivers of illegal immigration. Critics of reform, including those challenging S.744, argue that immigration reform which legalizes the current undocumented population or that does not mandate a biometric entry/exit system for new workers will fail because it will lead to increased flows of illegal immigration in the future. The argument usually used is that this happened after the Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) was implemented in 1986, and that this would happen again were a new reform that includes a comprehensive legalization package to be passed.

These arguments, however, are flawed. In fact, they fail to address IRCA’s shortcomings by proposing a limited interpretation that points to the presumed association between legalization and the increase of future illegal entry of migrants. But the problem with IRCA, as shown by several studies, did not reside in its legalization component. The issue, on the contrary, was largely based on IRCA’s failure to realistically regulate future immigrant flows based on an accurate and pragmatic assessment of the country’s needs.Read more...

Published On: Mon, May 20, 2013 | Download File

Under S. 744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” a merit-based point system is proposed as a tool to allocate a portion of new immigrant visas each year. After this new system becomes effective, a minimum of 120,000 foreign-born people would be able to obtain immigrant visas each year by accumulating points mainly based on their skills, employment history, and education credentials. At the same time, visa slots currently allocated to siblings and adult married children of U.S. citizens, as well as the diversity visa program, would be absorbed into this new system.

An evaluation of the point system requires an understanding of several different assumptions made by the drafters. First, in reallocating visas, does the new point system provide access to individuals currently eligible to enter the U.S. under the eliminated sibling and visa diversity lottery categories? If not, what does that say about the assumptions behind the proposal? Second, within the allocation of points awarded to individual applicants, what characteristics are favored and how does that affect the likelihood that different groups will be able to make use of the point system to enter the United States? At its core, the allocation of points is not a neutral act, but instead reflects a political view regarding the “desired immigrant.” While the bill overall continues to privilege family and employment-based immigration, the effort to create a “merit” system may actually be at odds with core values that the United States has traditionally embraced (in particular, the defense of equality of opportunity, the fight against discrimination of all sorts, the protection of minorities and traditionally disadvantaged groups, and the preservation of families).Read more...

Published On: Mon, May 20, 2013 | Download File

Our legal system rests upon the principle that everyone is entitled to due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard.  But for far too long, immigration courts have failed to provide noncitizens with a system of justice that lives up to this standard.  A noncitizen has not truly had his day in court if he is removed without ever seeing a judge, if he does not have access to counsel and necessary evidence, or if the decision in his case receives only perfunctory review.  The 2013 Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (“S. 744”) would take significant steps toward ensuring noncitizens have a fair hearing.  This fact sheet explains some of the critical policy proposals found in S. 744 and the basis for them.

A system without sufficient protections

Deportation without a judge

In the current system, many immigrants who are removed never see the inside of a courtroom.  In fact, the majority of noncitizens are returned to their home countries through accelerated processes that do not include a hearing before a judge.  Even immigrants who are entitled to hearings may not make it to court if an immigration agent convinces them to agree to be deported before their first hearing.  More than 160,000 immigrants agreed to these “stipulated removal” orders between 2004 and 2010; the vast majority were unrepresented and in immigration detention.  Those whose cases reach immigration court appear before overburdened judges with insufficient time and resources for the cases in front of them.

Vulnerable immigrants without attorneysRead more...

Published On: Wed, May 15, 2013 | Download File