CONNECT
Why Obama’s Decision to Stop Deporting DREAM-Eligible Youth is Good for the Economy
Think Progress / News Report
Published: Friday 15 June 2012
Though exact details of the plan are still unclear, it could benefit as many as one million undocumented students living in the country, and it will almost certainly have tangible benefits for the long-term health of the American economy.
President Obama will announce a new immigration policy today that will allow some undocumented youths to avoid deportation and receive work permits to remain in the United States. Students in the U.S. who are in deportation proceedings or those who would have qualified for the DREAM Act and have yet to come forward to Department of Homeland Security officials will not be deported and will be allowed to work in the United States.
Though exact details of the plan are still unclear, it could benefit as many as one million undocumented students living in the country, and it will almost certainly have tangible benefits for the long-term health of the American economy.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the DREAM Act — which Republicans blocked in 2010 — would increase federal revenues by $1.7 billion over the next 10 years, reducing federal deficits by $2.2 billion over that time. DREAM-eligible students would generate between $1.4 and $3.6 trillion in taxable income over the course of their working lives, according to a study by UCLA’s North American Integration and Development Center.
DREAM-eligible youth could also help fill the 16 million shortfall of college-educated workers that is expected to hit the U.S. by 2025, and with 31.5 percent of science and engineering graduates coming from Latino backgrounds, Obama’s decision could add 252,000 new scientists, engineers, and technical workers to the nation’s dwindling supply in those fields.
The decision will help raise wages for American workers too. “As long as a cheap, compliant pool of undocumented labor is available, employers have every reason to take advantage of the situation, keeping wages as low as possible,” Cristina Jimenez wrote in the American Prospect in 2010. “Only when undocumented immigrants have the ability to exercise complete workplace rights will they help exert upward pressure on wages and labor standards that will benefit other workers.”
These benefits are obvious even to leading Republicans. “The economy will be better when that [undocumented] kid is able to fully realize his potential and break the pattern of his parent’s illegal activity,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said in 2010. Obama’s decision isn’t just good because it protects young adults who have spent most of their lives establishing homes in the United States, it’s good because it will help our struggling economy too.
Originally published on ThinkProgress
Get Email Alerts from NationofChange
ABOUT Travis Waldron
Travis Waldron is a reporter/blogger for ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Travis grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and holds a BA in journalism and political science from the University of Kentucky. Before coming to ThinkProgress, he worked as a press aide at the Health Information Center and as a staffer on Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s 2010 Senate campaign. He also interned at National Journal’s Hotline and was a sports writer and political columnist at the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky’s daily student newspaper.
Top Stories
By Ronnie Cummins
6 comments on "Why Obama’s Decision to Stop Deporting DREAM-Eligible Youth is Good for the Economy"
June 16, 2012 8:21am
I wish Travis Waldron and other people would actually take time to do the math before shouting their praises:
Right now the approved budget is $3,652,514,828,900.00 [3 trillion, 652 billion, 514 million, 828 thousand and 900 dollars]. It was climbing faster than I could count - the 5 minutes since I checked the http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html it had already increased by 1 billion dollars.
This new unauthorized program (Congress and the Senate had no say, nor do we the American people get a say) will save 2.2 billion dollars over 10 years - that is 220 million per year. We just SPENT 2.2 billion dollars in 10 minutes - not 10 years. Five years worth of the gains of this program actually disappeared while I was typing this. The actual amount this will affect the debt is .0060232 percent, or 6/1000 of 1 percent. WOW! Can't wait to spend all that!!!
This is nothing more than a real effort to get the Hispanic vote back which has shown a very big decrease in the polls. Imagine that this didn't happen over the past three years - but now along with promised hikes in military pay, social security hikes, and disability benefits all coinciding to happen during the election year... yes Santa Claus lives in the White House Virginia...
The number keeps climbing as this report got started - yesterday this was going to affect 800,000 Hispanics - today the number has increased to a million ILLEGALS - not undocumented. I bet in a week or so this will affect 1.5 million, maybe even 2 million so we can get that money amount to climb.
Janet Napolitano does not have the right or power to make this decision for America. I hope she gets tossed out on her ear - along with those involved with this scheme to make legals out of illegals. For all the ones who have worked hard to EARN their citizenship this is a kick in the face.
Dream Eligible Youth? - OMG. What about helping the Dream Eligible LEGAL youth already living here?
Bah Humbug - just more lies...
Certainly these are my personal opinions - and I approve this message.
June 16, 2012 12:01am
As the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, I'd rather see our President encourage leaders of Latin American countries to do better for their citizens rather than encouraging Latinos to break our immigration laws. If he doesn't like current INS laws, he should work with Congress to change them. This edict is a thinly veiled and pathetic attempt to please hispanics in order to get re-elected or this would have been his policy all along. I presume that most Latinos would prefer to live in their home country if it were a better place - and the only way that will happen is if they rally, protest, overthrow corrupt gov't's or leaders and strive to make their countries better - and our political leaders should help use leverage by insisting that the leaders of Latino countries do more for their citizens.
And Travis, as much as I'm sympathetic to the hispanics who migrate here, your logic is very flawed. At the same time you are applauding the President for this new policy, he has and is being criticized for not creating more jobs. You can't look at this through a microscope and only see one scenario that appeals to you. Have you thought of all the kids graduating high-school looking for summer jobs or part time jobs while they go to college. There aren't enough McDonalds or grocery stores in the nation to employ the workforce that is out there, desperately seeking jobs, not to mention all the legal hispanics who are seeking employment.
June 15, 2012 1:11pm
is anyone else bothered by the number and scope bho is using exec orders?
June 15, 2012 12:31pm
Travis, clearly you do not understand.
These people have absolutely no business even being in this country and are the responsibility of their respective foreign governments.
Everyone would be better served if these illegal immigrants were back in their own country.
You also use the false political correctness when you refer to them as "Undocumented"
Furthermore there are over 20 million unemployed US citizens who have every right to live and work in this country who's already dim employment prospects will be further diminished by this nonsense.
Illegal immigration is an affront to US citizenship and amnesty diminishes the value of US citizenship still further.
I declare my opposition to this travesty.
June 15, 2012 11:59am
Net immigration from Mexico is zero--not a poor country any more. Most border crossers now come from impoverished Central America. Money would be better spent helping those countries up on their feet rather than rounding up and deporting those 400 thousand crossers/year.
June 15, 2012 11:37pm
Morrell: Where did you come up with that statistic? Apparently, you haven't been to Tijuana lately or Juarez. In addition to abject poverty that still exists, people are literally being beheaded in Mexico and over 60,000 people have been murdered by drug cartels - so I'm pretty sure people are still migrating here from Mexico. My cousin married a Mexican lady and they tried to live in Tijuana to be close to her mother. They still own the home there, but kids were being kidnapped from their neighborhood, so they live in San Diego now. Do you watch the news or read newspapers - we have a horrible unemployment rate, over 15 trillion deficit that cannot be paid down and you want to spend money on Central American countries so they won't have to migrate here? That's actually what has us in the mess we're currently in now - we DO give billions to other countries while American citizens are homeless, hungry and jobless. I guess people like you think that the gov't just prints more money - actually, they have to get it from the citizens in the way of taxes, so if i have to pay more taxes, I'd like to help out my fellow American and pay down our own deficit