During the last few months, the debate over health care reform has been increasingly linked to the immigration issue. Opponents of Comprehensive Immigration Reform have sought to tar health care legislation with the claim that illegal immigrants will receive benefits at taxpayer’s expense.
There is in fact a major problem with some of the bills circulating in Congress but it has nothing to do with benefits going to the undocumented.
As of now about 7 million legal immigrants in the United States do not have any health insurance at all. In addition, most of the 4 million U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents are also not insured. These realities, not the false claims of immigration reform opponents, require action.
As Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) recently put it, "We understood that undocumented immigrants would get no taxpayer subsidy, and that there would be a verification system… ‘We said 'okay.' Bitter pills were swallowed." But after Rep. Joe Wilson’s "You Lie" outburst during President Obama’s recent speech to Congress, "… the White House started saying that illegal immigrants cannot even purchase health care on the free market health care exchange." Rep. Gutierrez went on to address the U.S. citizen children of illegal immigrants who are also at risk of not receiving health care, although legally entitled to it. "Last time I checked 3rd and 4th graders don't go around buying health insurance for themselves, they get it from their parents…To deny the parents is to deny their children."
Rep. Gutierrez is not alone. Senators Rockefeller (D-WV), Menendez (D-NJ) and Bingham (D-NM) co-sponsored legislation that would eliminate the current 5-year period legal immigrants must wait in order to participate in government programs such as Medicaid. Currently tax-paying legal permanent residents and other legal immigrants fall under existing rules that bar them from health coverage for the five year period.
"Five years is a long time to have to rely on the emergency room for expensive coverage (that we all pay for) and it is a lifetime for a child. It is fiscally and socially wise to include all tax-payers equally in a reformed health insurance system," said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of National Immigration Forum. (www.immigrationforum.org )
Once again, we are calling for deep, thoughtful conversations about these issues informed by careful study and concern for the common good. We believe these conversations will help inform congressional deliberations as they go forward.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
POSITIVE IMPACT OF IMMIGRANTS ON ARIZONA'S ECONOMY
Positive Impact of Immigrants on Arizona’s Economy Opponents of comprehensive immigration reform regularly trot out the claim that immigrants are a drain on Arizona’s economy due to the governmental benefits they receive. They have it wrong.
The Immigration Policy Center recently put together an excellent 3 page fact sheet (http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factcheck/New%20Americans%20in%20the%20Grand%20Canyon%20State%202009.pdf ) proving that in 2004 immigrant workers contributed $2.4 billion in state tax revenue. The total economic output attributable to Arizona’s immigrant workers was $44 billion in 2004, which sustained roughly 400,000 full time jobs.
Efforts to paint immigrants as the recipients of “our hard earned tax dollars” who give nothing back to our communities, state and nation are false and misleading. As the immigration reform debate moves forward in Arizona, the net positive contributions of immigrant families to our society’s economic well being should be front and center. We need to create the space and take the time in our congregations and communities to explore this reality.
The Immigration Policy Center recently put together an excellent 3 page fact sheet (http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factcheck/New%20Americans%20in%20the%20Grand%20Canyon%20State%202009.pdf ) proving that in 2004 immigrant workers contributed $2.4 billion in state tax revenue. The total economic output attributable to Arizona’s immigrant workers was $44 billion in 2004, which sustained roughly 400,000 full time jobs.
Efforts to paint immigrants as the recipients of “our hard earned tax dollars” who give nothing back to our communities, state and nation are false and misleading. As the immigration reform debate moves forward in Arizona, the net positive contributions of immigrant families to our society’s economic well being should be front and center. We need to create the space and take the time in our congregations and communities to explore this reality.
Friday, September 11, 2009
IMMIGRATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Several new studies examine the actions of employers who take advantage of undocumented workers for purposes of squeezing extra dollars for themselves. What is made clear in these studies is that both immigrant families and our society as a whole are negatively impacted by our broken immigration system. Two studies in particular, one by the National Employment Law Center (NELP) (http://nelp.3cdn.net/59719b5a36109ab7d8_5xm6bc9ap.pdf) and the other by the Cato Institute (http://www.freetrade.org/node/949) examine this issue.
The NELP study establishes conclusively that undocumented workers in this country are often paid less than the minimum wage, are rarely paid for overtime, and endure conditions that are unhealthy and dehumanizing. In some respects, the situation in which immigrant workers find themselves resembles slave labor. In addition, when the wage bar is set lower than U.S. labor laws allow, honest employers who do not hire undocumented workers are forced to drive down wages for all employees in order to stay competitive.
In Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York taken together more than $56.4 million dollars are lost in any given week due to employment and labor law violations. If immigrant workers were paid an honest wage these wages would become taxable and reduce the tax burden on the rest of us. Sales tax revenues would be boosted if immigrant workers were paid an honest wage.
In the second study by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, researchers calculated that establishing a visa tax would raise $180 billion new dollars annually. The Cato study also finds that when compared with a strict immigration/deportation policy, a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that allows for a guest-worker program would yield a $260 billion dollar benefit to American households.
In summary, because undocumented workers from other countries receive far less than their worth for work being done, the wages of our society as a whole suffer. Systemic violation of U.S. Labor standards by unscrupulous employers causes us all to suffer. Conversely, regularizing the status of immigrant workers will pay dividends for all.
Far from being the economic drain that adversaries of immigration reform claim, Comprehensive Immigration Reform in fact will redress moral wrongs while promoting national economic well being.
The NELP study establishes conclusively that undocumented workers in this country are often paid less than the minimum wage, are rarely paid for overtime, and endure conditions that are unhealthy and dehumanizing. In some respects, the situation in which immigrant workers find themselves resembles slave labor. In addition, when the wage bar is set lower than U.S. labor laws allow, honest employers who do not hire undocumented workers are forced to drive down wages for all employees in order to stay competitive.
In Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York taken together more than $56.4 million dollars are lost in any given week due to employment and labor law violations. If immigrant workers were paid an honest wage these wages would become taxable and reduce the tax burden on the rest of us. Sales tax revenues would be boosted if immigrant workers were paid an honest wage.
In the second study by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, researchers calculated that establishing a visa tax would raise $180 billion new dollars annually. The Cato study also finds that when compared with a strict immigration/deportation policy, a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that allows for a guest-worker program would yield a $260 billion dollar benefit to American households.
In summary, because undocumented workers from other countries receive far less than their worth for work being done, the wages of our society as a whole suffer. Systemic violation of U.S. Labor standards by unscrupulous employers causes us all to suffer. Conversely, regularizing the status of immigrant workers will pay dividends for all.
Far from being the economic drain that adversaries of immigration reform claim, Comprehensive Immigration Reform in fact will redress moral wrongs while promoting national economic well being.
Friday, September 4, 2009
REMEMBERING KENNEDY, LOOKING FORWARD
As Americans mourn the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, those of us committed to immigration reform must come to terms with the loss of a staunch ally. The first major bill Senator Kennedy managed to pass was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 – an answer to the growing frustrations felt by immigrants from such countries as Greece, Poland, Portugal, and Italy. Critics at that time charged that immigration quotas favored Northern and Western Europeans. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 gave an equal opportunity to newcomers from all nations across the globe.
Since then, Senator Kennedy’s name has been attached to every progressive immigration bill fashioned through bipartisan negotiations, passed by Congress and signed by Presidents in those 44 years. During the same period all restrictive immigration bills drew the Senator’s ire and opposition.
Why was Senator Kennedy such an ardent advocate for immigration reform? When asked, Senator Kennedy referenced his own family history. “There was an enormous sense of discrimination against the immigrants that grew, and discrimination against the Irish—which I remember hearing about in great detail from my grandfather.” He told me that in his world the message relentlessly delivered by nativists was “…no Irish need apply for jobs. They were constantly ostracized and discriminated against, primarily against employment and every other aspect of social-political and economic life.”
Just as Kennedy’s family story helped inform his political positions, we think it’s important for Americans to probe their own family histories as the debate over immigration moves forward. Questions about where we came from and how we got here are central not only to how our own families have pursued the American Dream but also how the nation as a whole has grown in diversity and vitality since our founding.
In the coming months, as Congress attempts to broker a deal on comprehensive immigration reform, we intend to challenge ourselves and others to probe our own family stories as they intersect with the American Story. In so doing we may help strengthen a common narrative thread linking those who have already arrived to those yet to come. Sharing these stories in public conversations large and small may help engender support for the kind of Comprehensive Immigration Reform vigorously endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy.
--“There are a lot of people who haven’t had opportunities in other places as a result of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes and discrimination. Are we going to say we refuse to let any of those individuals come in because we’ve got someone who has happened to have a more advantaged situation? I’m not sure that’s what this country is all about.” --Edward Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)
Since then, Senator Kennedy’s name has been attached to every progressive immigration bill fashioned through bipartisan negotiations, passed by Congress and signed by Presidents in those 44 years. During the same period all restrictive immigration bills drew the Senator’s ire and opposition.
Why was Senator Kennedy such an ardent advocate for immigration reform? When asked, Senator Kennedy referenced his own family history. “There was an enormous sense of discrimination against the immigrants that grew, and discrimination against the Irish—which I remember hearing about in great detail from my grandfather.” He told me that in his world the message relentlessly delivered by nativists was “…no Irish need apply for jobs. They were constantly ostracized and discriminated against, primarily against employment and every other aspect of social-political and economic life.”
Just as Kennedy’s family story helped inform his political positions, we think it’s important for Americans to probe their own family histories as the debate over immigration moves forward. Questions about where we came from and how we got here are central not only to how our own families have pursued the American Dream but also how the nation as a whole has grown in diversity and vitality since our founding.
In the coming months, as Congress attempts to broker a deal on comprehensive immigration reform, we intend to challenge ourselves and others to probe our own family stories as they intersect with the American Story. In so doing we may help strengthen a common narrative thread linking those who have already arrived to those yet to come. Sharing these stories in public conversations large and small may help engender support for the kind of Comprehensive Immigration Reform vigorously endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy.
--“There are a lot of people who haven’t had opportunities in other places as a result of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes and discrimination. Are we going to say we refuse to let any of those individuals come in because we’ve got someone who has happened to have a more advantaged situation? I’m not sure that’s what this country is all about.” --Edward Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)
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