President Barack Obama is trying to get a bill for comprehensive immigration reform to be passed through Congress that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants that are already residing and working in the United States to start on a path to full citizenship.
The bill is also intended to assist educated workers from China and India to be able to become legal immigrants to the United States and Obama has been putting much emphasis on the many ways in which the country’s economy would greatly benefit from immigration reform. Both documented and undocumented immigrants pay on average almost an additional $2,000 in taxes that they get in benefits, which would assist with boosting the federal government’s revenue.
A study conducted by Think Progress found that the legalization of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States would result in the federal government earning an extra $4.5 – $5.4 billion over the course of just three years. Legalized immigrants could also fill the many thousands of open petitions that are available for non-agricultural, low-skilled workers in the country, with 23% of the high-tech manufacturing and tech industries workforce already being occupied by immigrants, many of them better educated than a number of Americans holding the same position.
There are many industries that would benefit from immigration reform including agriculture, construction and food preparation, with newly legalized immigrants helping to create between 750,000 and 900,000 new jobs.
