Just the Facts

During the current contentious and highly emotional national debate over U.S. immigration policy, many pundits and policymakers have tried to draw a connection between undocumented immigrants and high rates of crime and incarceration. However, the

Published On: Thu, Mar 13, 2008 | Download File

Information and examples on how the immigration debate has spurred discrimination, hate, and violence.

Published On: Sun, Mar 30, 2008 | Download File

Provides a summary of the new proposed "no-match" regulations and their harmful impact on workers, employers, and the Social Security Administration.

Published On: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 | Download File

The Impact on America's Children Study of Three Raid Sites Finds One Child Affected for Every Two Adults

As the number of worksite immigration raids has increased in recent years, the number of families affected by the raids continues to grow.  The number of undocumented immigrants arrested at workplaces increased more than sevenfold from 500 to 3,600 between 2002 and 2006.  The Urban Institute and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) closely examined the sites of three workplace raids – in Greeley, Colorado; Grand Island, Nebraska; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Their recent report, Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children, highlights one of the most harmful unintended consequences of the raids – the devastation to families and children, many of whom are U.S. citizens.  The report does not address whether enforcement activities should take place.  Rather, it questions how enforcement is done and the impact that enforcement policies have on Americans.  The focus is on children “because they have strong claims to the protection of society, especially when they are citizens and integrated into their schools and communities, and the Unites States is the only country they have known and consider home.” Read more...

Published On: Mon, Mar 31, 2008 | Download File

Tax Day would seem to be an appropriate time to inject some bottom-line reality into the long-running debate over whether or not immigrants in the United States “pay their own way” as taxpayers.   As with nearly all aspects of the immigration debate, the controversy over how immigrants impact the public treasury is far too often dominated by emotionally charged rhetoric rather than hard facts.  Many of these much-needed facts are provided in a forthcoming report from the Immigration Policy Center by Stephen Moore, Senior Economics Writer at the Wall Street Journal and former director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University.  Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 Current Population Survey and other sources, Moore and Vedder find that immigrants not only pay their own way in taxes, but play a hefty role in shoring up the teetering Social Security system, and provide a fiscal windfall to U.S. taxpayers by tending to come to the United States during their prime working years—after the costs of their education and upbringing have been borne by their home countries. Read more...

Published On: Sat, Apr 12, 2008 | Download File

Mandatory electronic employment verification systems would require all American workers, foreign- and native-born alike, to seek the government’s permission to work. This Immigration Fact Check covers what we know about the databases and what we can expect if these bills are passed, including information on database error rates, the impact on the SSA, and employers' misuse of the program.

Published On: Wed, Apr 02, 2008 | Download File

Findings show that when it comes to immigration, cable news overflows not just with vitriolic rhetoric, but also with a series of myths that feed viewers' resentment and fears.

Published On: Wed, May 21, 2008 | Download File

During his first trip to the United States in April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the importance of treating immigrants in the U.S. in dignified and humane manner. Without missing a beat, anti-immigrant voices, including CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton), took the occasion to push their rhetoric to a new level, lambasting the Pope for his comments.

Published On: Tue, May 06, 2008 | Download File

This fact check looks at the experiences of Arizona’s employers and employees with E-Verify, and early signals of its impact on the state’s economy.

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Published On: Mon, May 05, 2008 | Download File

While the U.S. government has poured billions upon billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically. Rather than reducing undocumented immigration, this enforcement-without-reform strategy has diverted the resources and attention of federal authorities to the pursuit of undocumented immigrants who are drawn here by the labor needs of our own economy.

Published On: Thu, May 22, 2008 | Download File