President Donald Trump’s merit immigration reform is intended to raise Americans’ wages — so a large swath of the U.S. media is willfully misreading a prestigious report to hide the economic benefit for Americans.
Officials at a privately-funded D.C.-based think-tank are trying to hide their data showing how mass immigration is imposing massive costs on wage-earners and on taxpayers.
Each immigrant costs state and local taxpayers roughly $1,600 more per year than the immigrant generates in taxes, the report notes. In total, the current annual net cost of first-generation immigrants — including the cost of educating their children — adds up to $57.4 billion per year, much of which is paid by state and local taxpayers.
The evidence shows a “slowing rate of wage convergence for immigrants admitted after 1979,” said the report, titled “The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration.” It adds: “These overall conclusions hold after controlling for immigrants’ educational attainment.”
The report plays up the benefits of immigration by saying the inflow of skilled and unskilled immigrants has ”generated an immigration surplus of $54.2 billion, representing a 0.31 percent overall increase in income that accrues to the native population.” But that flood of low-wage immigrants also cuts marketplace wages for Americans by 5.2 cents on the dollar, admits the report, titled “The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration.”
