Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a new analysis that compares the 10-year potential economic impact of three scenarios: no executive action on immigration, the implementation of deferred action—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents programs—and Congress passing legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants in the United States.
The analysis found that each day that the United States fails to advance a rational and humane approach to the nation’s broken immigration system, the country misses out on the following significant economic benefits:
- A $230 billion cumulative increase in gross domestic product, or GDP, through deferred action versus a $1.2 trillion increase in GDP through legislative action with a pathway to citizenship
- A $124 billion cumulative increase in the income of all Americans through deferred action versus a $625 billion increase through legislative action with a pathway to citizenship
- An average of 29,000 new jobs created annually through deferred action versus 145,000 new jobs through legislative action with a pathway to citizenship
“Deferred action programs are an important interim step toward a long-term solution, and while they will produce significant economic and fiscal gains, those gains still pale in comparison to the economic, fiscal, and common-sense benefits that America would reap from legislative reform that includes a pathway to citizenship,” said Silva Mathema, CAP Policy Analyst and author of the analysis. “The status quo is simply too costly to our country.”
See the full infographic here.
For more information or to speak with an expert on this topic, please contact Tanya S. Arditi at [email protected] or 202.741.6258.
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