Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer-Immigration Reform is Necessary for Economic Recovery
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Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:27:45 EST
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_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/immigration-reform-is-nec_b_44
5688.html_ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/immigration-reform-is-nec_b_445688.html) 

Immigration Reform is Necessary for America’s  Economic Recovery 

In his State of the  Union speech, President Obama committed his 
Administration to pass comprehensive  immigration reform. There are those who claim 
that this year immigration reform  is a diversion from the priority task of 
fixing the economy – and also  politically impossible to achieve.   
In fact, comprehensive immigration reform  is critical for America’s long 
term economic success  and is one of the few political initiatives that could 
receive genuine  bipartisan support in the current Congress. 
The immigration system  is broken – and it costs the American economy 
billions in lost productivity,  wasted resources, underdeveloped human capital, 
depressed wages, and uncollected  tax revenue.  
The immigration reform  issue is also very acutely and personally important 
to the many recent  immigrants to America, their families, friends and  
communities.  The way it is  addressed in Congress will have profound long-term 
political  consequences. 
The Current Immigration System is an Economic  Albatross 
The roughly twelve  million undocumented immigrants in the United States 
create a permanent  underclass of workers who exist in the shadows of our 
society.  Their lack of legal status makes them  easy prey for economic 
exploitation by unscrupulous employers that drag down  wages and working conditions 
for everyone.   
Unscrupulous companies  that hire undocumented aliens and pay 
below-standard wages, also undercut  law-abiding employers, leading a race to the bottom 
and preventing law-abiding  companies from being able to compete. 
The result is a  growing number of immigrant – and non-immigrant-workers 
--who receive lower  wages and as a consequence spend less on the economy’s 
goods and services.  
Just as bad, the current  immigration laws prevent undocumented immigrants 
from investing in their own  education and training – the principal engine 
of economic growth.  Current law makes it nearly impossible  for undocumented 
immigrants to get financial support for higher education.  Even those who 
grew up in America, after being brought here as  children, are barred from 
receiving federal assistance for college.  
Several weeks ago, the Center for American  Progress published a study 
concluding that comprehensive immigration reform  would lead to a $1.5 trillion 
growth in gross domestic product over the next ten  years.   
That finding is based  on surveys indicating that newly legalized 
immigrants experience substantial  increases in wages, go on to better jobs, and 
invest heavily in higher  education.   
The study concluded  that reform would raise the “wage floor” for all 
workers, increase willingness  of newly-legalized immigrants to invest in the 
economy and purchase big-ticket  items like homes, produce more income and 
spending, and as a consequence  generate more tax revenue for government. 
The effect of  immigration reform would be especially pronounced when it 
comes to tax revenue  and government expenditures.  Currently employers often 
pay undocumented workers “under the  table.”  That costs government – and  
the Social Security Trust Fund – billions of dollars in lost revenue.   At 
the same time, billions more  are expended to apprehend, detain and deport 
productive members of society.  
And, of course, the  status quo diverts precious law enforcement resources 
from apprehending serious  criminals and terrorists to chasing down bus boys 
and farm  workers. 
America’s long-term economic success  requires that we fix the broken 
immigration system. We can’t rebuild a  strong, robust economy on top of a broken 
immigration  system. 
The Status Quo is Morally  Unacceptable 
Of course for  immigrants and their friends and families, that broken 
immigration system is  more than an economic disaster.  It  destroys families and 
prevents millions of ordinary people from living up to  their potential and 
fully contributing to our society.  It also stands in stark contradiction 
to  fundamental American values.  
Every day Congress  puts off reforming our immigration system, millions of 
American families,  including five million U.S. citizens who live in 
families with undocumented  immigrants, live in fear that their families will be 
torn apart by the  inflexible immigration system—all because the system 
provides no way for decent,  hard-working immigrants to become legal.   
There is Only One Common Sense  Solution 
Congress has a clear  choice: reform that strengthens the rule of law and 
our economy, or a phony  non-solution that will make a bad situation worse.   
 
The bottom line is  that our government is not going to round up twelve 
million undocumented  immigrants, put them on trains, buses and airplanes, and 
ship them back to their  countries of origin. Mass deportation of millions 
of workers and their families  is a phony non-solution that is both 
impractical and un-American. It is not a  politically, morally or economically 
acceptable solution to the problem of  illegal immigration.  As a practical  
matter it will never happen – and if it ever did, economists have estimated it  
would cost our economy $2.6 trillion dollars in gross domestic product over 
the  next ten years.  
So the only real  alternatives are the status quo and comprehensive 
immigration  reform. 
Comprehensive  immigration reform is the only plan that will strengthen the 
rule of law, level  the playing field in the workplace, reduce illegal 
immigration to a trickle, and  reward those who play by the rules.   
It does so through a combination of smart  and effective border 
enforcement, a crackdown on illegal hiring and unfair labor  practices, modernizing the 
legal immigration system, and requiring those here  illegally to register 
with the government, pass background checks, study  English, pay taxes, and 
get in line to work towards  citizenship.  
It would make sure  those who here are in the system legally, that all 
workers and employers  are paying their fair share of taxes, and that those 
immigrants who come in the  future do so legally too.  
In  addition to its benefits here at home, comprehensively addressing the  
immigration issue will improve the way America is viewed around the world – 
and  especially in Latin America.   
Is Comprehensive Immigration Reform Politically  Possible? 
Many of  those who think immigration reform can’t pass this year have it 
confused with  health care, clean energy or holding Wall Street Bank 
accountable. Immigration  reform involves a different political dynamic than those 
equally critical  issues. Dealing with each of those issues requires that 
Progressives take on  massive, powerful economic interests that are often 
defended by the Republicans  and some conservative Democrats.  That is not true in 
the case of immigration.   
This  year, for the first time, the business community and organized labor 
have come  together to support the effort for reform.  Both realize that 
immigration reform is critical to long term economic  growth and job creation.  
Labor  realizes that the wages and working conditions of its members depend 
heavily on  the elimination of a shadow labor market that is not subject to 
wage, labor and  health and safety laws.  
The  Democratic leadership in both Houses – and the White House – all 
understand  acutely how important this issue is for Latinos – the fastest 
growing group of  American voters. That understanding is shared by many 
Republicans as well, who  are not keen on writing off the Hispanic vote for a 
generation.   
They  realize that comprehensive immigration reform is a critical priority 
for all  recent immigrant groups – and especially Latinos.  These groups are 
growing faster in  numbers and political importance than any other 
demographic group in  America.  For Latinos in particular, comprehensive  
immigration reform is a realignment issue – much like civil rights issues were  for 
African Americans in the 1960’s. 
The Tea  Party gang – and a vocal anti-immigrant minority – will certainly 
do everything  it can to intimidate swing district Democrats and many 
Republicans into voting  against immigration reform.  But the  movement to pass 
legislation will not be up against a massive drumbeat of  negative ads, or a 
well-heeled corps of entrenched lobbyists that have been such  factors in 
the battle for health insurance reform.  
A number  of Democrats in swing districts – and Republicans who might be 
subject to  primary challenges – will certainly be reluctant to vote for 
immigration  reform.   
But it  has always been clear that to pass, immigration reform must be 
bi-partisan.  And today that is entirely possible.  There is a solid core of 
Republicans – both in the House and Senate -- who  understand (just as George 
Bush and Karl Rove understood) the importance of the  Latino vote. To pass 
the Senate, a bill would need the support of at least six  Republicans.  In 
the House, it would  probably need the support of 20 to 25 Republicans.  That 
is entirely doable – especially  given the number of Republicans whose 
districts include large agri-business  sectors that strongly support reform.  
Within  the next few weeks it is likely that a bi-partisan bill will in 
fact be offered  in the Senate.  Its passage will be  strongly supported by the 
Democratic Majority Leader, Harry Reid, who is heavily  committed to 
immigration reform – both because of his personal concern for the  issue and the 
fact that Nevada is now 25%  Latino. 
The White  House is fully invested in passing immigration reform this year 
and understands  completely that President Obama won a number of Western 
states largely on the  strength of strong support in the Latino community. 
And finally,  the immigration reform movement is organized as never before –
 lead by a highly  sophisticated campaign called Immigration Reform for 
America.   
The  bottom line is simple.  Pundits who  make smug predictions about how 
immigration reform is impossible this year  should think again.  On the other 
 hand, many of them are the same folks who were absolutely certain that 
Barack  Obama would never be President, that Massachusetts would never elect a 
Republican  Senator or that this year’s New Orleans Saints would never make 
it to the Super  Bowl. 
Last fall  I had the occasion to visit the museum at Ellis Island in New 
York that commemorates the millions of immigrants that  have come to America 
to seek a better life – and  build our extraordinary multi-cultural society. 
There were pictures of the  Italians, Poles, Germans, Jews, Russians, Irish, 
and so many others who came  here in the late 19th and early 20th 
Centuries.   
With the  exception of Native Americas, all of our forbearers came from 
another land. And  there is no disputing that the pioneering immigrant spirit 
has done more than  anything to forge America’s “Yes We Can”, optimistic,  
entrepreneurial, sense of possibility.  
It would certainly be fitting, if on the next 4th of July,  President Obama 
could sign a long overdue Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill  there at 
Ellis Island where the spirits of previous generations of American  
immigrants could bear witness as America recommits itself yet again to  fulfilling 
its historically unique role of showing the world that it is possible  to 
create a country where many cultures can live and work together to create a  
truly democratic society. 
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and  strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  “Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win,” 
available on _Amazon.com._ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213241439&sr=8-
1)  

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