The Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland, has issued a report concluding that, over the last decade, immigrants have contributed to the state’s economic growth and workforce expansion. Notable quotes from the press release:
- “In aggregate and over the long term, immigrants pay more in federal, state, and local taxes than they use in government services.”
- “The report finds that immigrants are less likely to commit violent crime than the U.S.-born, and it urges communities to be wary of federal programs designed to engage local police agencies in the enforcement of U.S. immigration law.”
- “Foreign-born workers’ contribution to economic growth largely supplies the tax and other resources needed to cope with the larger population that immigration produce.”
- “Without the influx of foreign-born workers, expansion in these labor-intensive industries would have been choked off, increasing prices and discouraging growth across the economy.”
- “The report urges legislators to take a long view of immigration, which will show that the benefits significantly outweigh the costs, even the short run fiscal costs of providing state and local services. It says the state would be “foolhardy” to shortchange the education of immigrants’ children, who will be part of the state’s future workforce.”
The report highlights what is wrong with the anti-immigration law of Arizona and and that of Alabama. Alabama’s anti-immigration law is projected to cost the state billions. Additionally, Alabama is now denying food stamps to undocumented children. Both states’ laws and politicians play into peoples’ fears that immigrants take up precious resources, attract and commit crime, and take jobs away (most recently coined the “Dangerous zero sum game fallacy” and debunked – “The theory is, in essence, that every time we eliminate the opportunity for a foreign national to either come to or remain in the United States, we create an immediate job opportunity for an American, — in other words, immigration and American jobs are somehow elements in a “zero sum game.”)