Former Administration Economist Asserts Economic Benefits of Amnesty
NBC-Latino highlights the efforts of Adriana Kugler, a Colombian-American who until recently was chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, to provide a justification for granting amnesty to the 12 million illegal aliens in the country. See this writeup for more.According to the news article, Kugler has written that, ““We find no evidence that the recent wave of unskilled Latin Americans displaced native Hispanics or even previous Latin Americans from their jobs.” Her finding is at odds with research findings by respected economists who have built a compelling case that illegal immigration does hurt similarly skilled workers. In fact, economists also have found that Hispanic immigrants are disproportionately hurt by illegal immigration.In addition, Kugler argues that now is a good time for amnesty because, “…for the first time we are at negative net migration; we don’t have floods of people coming in.” That is not correct according to data collected by the Census Bureau. The most recent official data available documents that international migration (residents arriving from abroad minus residents moving away) accounted for a net increase in the U.S. population of about 704,000 people between April 1 2010 and July 1, 2011. Furthermore, the Census Bureau estimates are generally understood to underestimate the effect of illegal immigration.