STUDY PROVES IMMIGRATION BENEFITS U.S.

by Ana Vinas, Staff-Writter-Translator

Researchers and academics from several Texas universities agreed at a conference conducted by Federal Reserves Bank that immigration in the short run costs U.S. taxpayers, but in the long run the effect is beneficial for the country once immigrants start working and paying their taxes.

Immigration effects in the U.S. economy were analyzed by specialists, among them Jeffrey Passel, director for Urban Institute Migration Politics Research; Robert Cushing, academic at University of Texas in Austin; Jorge Santibañez, researcher for Northern Mexico Border College.

Santibañez commented that the big operations implemented at the borders, such as "Gatekeeper" in Tijuana, and "Hold the Line" in El Paso are not the answer to stopping illegal immigration. "They are just a key to control the flows," he added and explained that these operations in urban areas direct the flow of illegal immigrants to the mountains and the deserts. In turn, this causes women and children to stay behind and the ones who successfully make it to the U.S. are young males.

He also said, "The borders are the observatory for the immigration flow." According to the specialists, last year a total of 916,000 legal immigrants, while close to 300,000 came into the United States illegally.

According to George Borjas, public politics professor at Harvard University's School of Government, illegal immigration has a short period cost to each tax paying family in the U.S.--in states such as Texas the cost is about $1,000 per year. "However, in the long run the effect is reversed once the immigrant starts working and paying taxes," said Borjas.

For example, an immigrant without average education will cost the state about $13,000 per year; however, one who has at least two years of college education generates $198,000 in taxes over his lifetime. Specialist indicated that presently 59% of the U.S. population is Anglo and 41% Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American. These numbers will change with time, when different races will be mixed and the number of Hispanics coming across the borders will increase, said Borjas.

Source: Diario de Juárez