Dem Rep. Casten: I Worry There’s ‘Bipartisan’ Demonization of Immigration, Despite Immigration Helping with Inflation

During an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) said that job creation is outpacing workforce growth which is “creating some upward pressure on inflation,” and “one of the concerns that I have, personally, is that it has become so bipartisan to demonize immigration, and I think we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that immigration is substantially what’s allowing our economy to create jobs so quickly and not have upward pressure on inflation.” Although he acknowledged that some of the pressure created by investment has eased, “thanks to inflation.”

Casten stated, “[W]e’ve seen this surge of investment for the last four years, really, for the first time in decades, we’ve consistently seen job creation out[pacing] worker creation. Our workforce has not been growing as fast as the jobs have. That was creating some upward pressure on inflation, it was certainly contributing to it. It’s a good problem to have, right? Because there was so [many] investments going on in the United States. We have seen some of that pressure easing, frankly, thanks to inflation. And one of the concerns that I have, personally, is that it has become so bipartisan to demonize immigration, and I think we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that immigration is substantially what’s allowing our economy to create jobs so quickly and not have upward pressure on inflation. Inflation’s come down. I do get concerned about that xenophobia and where that might push us, but, on balance, I feel pretty good about where the economy is right now. We’re still staying, 4, 4.2% unemployment, which is pretty good. The job revisions, such as they are, are moving in the right direction.”

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