BPC's Theresa Cardinal Brown: Balanced Immigration Reform Proposals Can Grow Economy

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Aug 18, 2015, 08:09 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Immigration reform that includes only strict enforcement without addressing other aspects of the system would stifle the American economy, says Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). A recent BPC report outlined the positive economic impacts of balanced immigration reform.

READ THE REPORT: http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/assembling-the-pieces-the-economics-of-step-by-step-immigration-reform/

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"Our research shows that sensible reforms that combine enforcement with reforms to the legal immigration system and legal status for the existing undocumented population would boost GDP and lower federal budget deficits over the next two decades," Brown said.

"What will harm the economy, though, is an enforcement-only approach that reduces the unauthorized population and shrinks the labor force while doing nothing to address the many other broken aspects of our immigration system. Whether reforms happen in a single package or step-by-step, we should look carefully at the overall impacts that various policies might have on the U.S. economy," Brown said.

Additional BPC research shows that immigration has been a boon to the United States, staving off the negative impacts of an aging and shrinking native population, helping extend entitlement programs, and giving an edge over other developed nations facing much more dire situations.

READ THE RESEARCH: http://bit.ly/1JeSMzE

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SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center