Immigration: The US Economy

In July of 2016, when Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, he claimed: ”Decades of record immigration have provided lower wages and higher unemployment for citizens, especially African-American and Latino workers.” Trump was citing research by Harvard economist George Borjas who said Trump did accurately portray one part of his findings that the recent large influx of immigrants has reduced the annual wages of agricultural and service workers. However, Borjas accused Trump of ignoring his broader conclusion that immigration is a “net good” for the nation, increasing the total wealth of the population as a whole. Nevertheless, Trump and his followers have continued to propagate this misleading citation of scholarly research in his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Testifying before Congress on September 20, 2023, the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit advocacy group insisted solid research demonstrates that immigrants of all types (low-skilled, high-skilled, undocumented, humanitarian, family-based and employment-based) contribute substantially to the United States economy, help power our growth, and provide an overall net financial benefit to this country. Even those who come to the U.S. through purely humanitarian channels will over time pay more into the system than they draw from it. For example, in 2019, immigrant households collectively earned $1.7 trillion in income and paid $467 billion in taxes. Despite being 13.6% of the total U.S. population, immigrants are 26.1% of agriculture workers and 45% of all people employed in the meat packing industry. The congressional testimony of the American Immigration Council concluded that without robust immigration “America’s food producers would see even greater labor shortages and American consumers would pay even higher prices for everyday food items.” In this regard, the Brookings Institute published a report in 2024 arguing that starting in 2022 the massive influx of immigrants enabled the U.S. economy to grow without causing uncontrollable inflation and without causing the recession predicted by most economists.

Drawing on Catholic Social Teaching (CST), the American bishops have consistently advocated for policies that would allow more immigrant workers to enter the country. For example, in their 2013 statement on “Immigration Reform” the bishops noted that over the last several decades the demand of U.S. businesses for low-skilled worders has “grown exponentially” while the supply of such workers has diminished. At that time, there were only 5,000 green cards available annually to allow low-skilled workers to enter the country lawfully to reside and work. In this situation, the bishops noted that CST insists that prosperous nations have a special obligation to welcome foreigners seeking the “means of livelihood” not available in their homeland. According to the U.S. bishops, any program should include workplace protections, living wage levels, safeguards against displacement of U.S. workers, and family unity. In 2024, the USCCB continued to lobby Congress for expanded access to work authorization within a comprehensive employment-based immigration plan.

As we ponder the impact of immigration on the U.S. economy, we would do well to recall relevant CST themes. Immigrants are members of God’s family, human persons redeemed by Christ, individuals with inherent dignity worthy of respect. The opportunity for them to work enables them to participate in God’s on-going creation, to develop and fulfill their God-given gifts and talents, and to know the satisfaction of providing a living for their families. Our Christian faith assures us that when we help an immigrant, we help Christ himself.

For me, what is the most compelling argument supporting my view on immigration and the economy?