In POLITICO’s Feb. 4 Ideas section, Gary Bauer argues that immigration reform is “risky” for Democrats. What Bauer fails to address is that doing nothing to fix our broken immigration system is more damaging for this Congress, which is perceived by a large part of the public as unable to solve tough problems.
Economic analyses from both the libertarian CATO Institute and the progressive Center for American Progress, in partnership with the Immigration Policy Center, prove that putting all immigrants on a level footing will dramatically increase the gross domestic product, in some forecasts by as much as $1.6 trillion over 10 years. This is real money, even for Washington.
An immigration system that includes legalization will lift the wages of all workers, just as it did during the 1986 legalization of which Bauer was a part; the numbers show that economic recovery will cement once the immigration system has been repaired.
Furthermore, every other effort to fix the immigration system has been bipartisan. If anything, comprehensive immigration reform will be a benefit to Democrats, who can finally fulfill the president’s promise; to Republicans, who have been hurt by this issue in the past two elections cycles and really want it off the table; and to all Americans who are desperate for political action.