Immigration Policy Center

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Explainer thanks Cheryl David of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Benjamin Johnson of the American Immigration Council, Audrey Singer of the Brookings Institution, and Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Published in the Slate

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the more liberal American Immigration Council, countered that for some conservatives, "it's never enough." Over the last seven years, Johnson said, the U.S. has quintupled its number of border agents and quadrupled its immigration enforcement budget -- "but the appetite for increasing immigration enforcement-only policy seems to be never-ending. I can only conclude that it's because constantly raising the bar on how much we need to spend and what constitutes secure borders at this point seems like an excuse for not doing anything else."

Published in the Atlantic

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

For more than a year, senior researcher Dr. Walter Ewing and research associate Seth Hoy analyzed and compiled data on every state in the US to track the powerful impact immigrants have on this country. The result: A recent study released by the Immigration Policy Center that highlights both the political and economic power that immigrants—specifically Latinos and Asians—have on the United States. With Arizona's controversial SB 1070 scheduled to go into effect today (although a ruling yesterday by US District Judge Susan Bolton blocks some aspects of the law), politicians, business owners and the like should take note.

Published in the Latina

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

While most illegal immigrants live and work under the radar in Georgia, they have created an indelible economic footprint here, according to a number of experts:

● They account for about $9.4 billion in a state economy of roughly $320 billion.

● They contribute between $215 million and $253 million to state coffers in the form of sales, income and property taxes.

● They account for 6.3 percent of Georgia’s work force, but in some industries they are the lion’s share of workers. Experts estimate that 40 percent to 50 percent of the workers in agriculture — the state’s largest industry — are illegal.

Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

The Immigration Policy Center, based in the nation's capital, pulled together immigration data from a variety of sources. Then it released fact sheets for all 50 states.

The center's Wendy Sefsaf says the study concludes that, if all undocumented workers were booted out of the Northwest immediately, the economic impact would be huge.

Wendy Sefsaf: "The undocumented are part of our workforce and they're people who buy and consume goods. So if you get rid of them, there's less consumers, which means there's less money going into an economy that supports those jobs."

The center's study concludes illegal immigrants have a bigger economic impact in Washington than in other Northwest states. Regionwide, the research estimates spending by undocumented workers is responsible for about 90-thousand jobs.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates five percent of Oregon workers are undocumented, compared to about three percent in Washington and Idaho.

Published in the NPR KPLU

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

An immigration think tank in Washington Wednesday released a report showing the impact of immigrants on the nation and individual states.

The Immigration Policy Center said its complete series of 50 state fact sheets highlight the political and economic power of immigrants, Latinos and Asians in every state of the union, who account for large and growing shares of the U.S. economy and electorate.

Overall, immigrants made up more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, or nearly 38 million people, in 2008, the report said.

Published in the United Press International

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

Seeking to insert "fact into a fact-free debate" about immigration, the Immigration Policy Center Wednesday unveiled statistical data for all 50 states highlighting Latino and Asian immigrants' political and economic power in American life.

"Facts are sadly lacking in the immigration debate," Mary Giovagnoli, director of the center, a pro-immigrant research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council, said in a conference call with reporters.

The policy center, based in Washington, D.C., compiled "fact sheets" for all 50 states and the District of Columbia from academic studies and government databases. They can be found at www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts.

Published in the Newsday

Published on Wed, Jul 28, 2010

The Immigration Policy Center on Wednesday released its complete series of 50 state fact sheets which highlight the political and economic power of immigrants, Latinos and Asians in every state of the union.

Here are the results for how immigrants affect Idaho.

Published in the Sun Valley Online

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

• As of June 30, bills similar to Arizona's law had been introduced in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Michigan.
• In the first half of the year, 44 state legislatures passed 191 laws and adopted 128 resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees, with governors vetoing five of the bills. This was a 21 percent increase in enacted laws and resolutions from the same time period in 2009.
• Most of the state legislation addresses employment, law enforcement and identification.
• In all of 2009 more than 1,500 bills were introduced in state legislatures related to immigration, compared to 300 in 2005.
• Immigrants made up more than 12 percent of the U.S. population in 2008 and the foreign-born share of Arizona's population was 14.3 percent that year. In California, which is also on the border, foreign-born residents make up more than a quarter of the population. Latinos make up the biggest group.
• The Latino share of Arizona's population was 30.1 percent in 2008. In neighboring Texas, Latinos made up 36.5 percent of the population and in California they made up 32.4 percent. In New Mexico, they represented nearly 45 percent of the population.

Published in the Reuters

Published on Tue, Jul 27, 2010

Giovagnoli said the Republican Senators are helping “perpetuate an urban legend of massive proportions,” calling the idea that the president could use some sort of backdoor method to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, “extremely far fetched.”

“The resources and tools needed to make something like this happen just aren’t there, especially because any kind of mass program like the one envisioned in this letter would essentially require a registration and reviewing process to determine who was actually qualified to remain,” Giovagnoli said in a piece last month for AlterNet.org. “Absent legislative action, the financial resources needed to carry out something of this scope would be difficult to procure.”

Published in the Iowa Independent