By Robert Creamer, political organizer, strategist and author. Originally published at the Huffington Post.
In his State of the Union speech, President Obama committed his Administration to pass comprehensive immigration reform. There are those who claim that this year immigration reform is a diversion from the priority task of fixing the economy — and also politically impossible to achieve.
In fact, comprehensive immigration reform is critical for America’s long term economic success and is one of the few political initiatives that could receive genuine bipartisan support in the current Congress.
The immigration system is broken — and it costs the American economy billions in lost productivity, wasted resources, underdeveloped human capital, depressed wages, and uncollected tax revenue.
The immigration reform issue is also very acutely and personally important to the many recent immigrants to America, their families, friends and communities. The way it is addressed in Congress will have profound long-term political consequences.
The Current Immigration System is an Economic Albatross
The roughly twelve million undocumented immigrants in the United States create a permanent underclass of workers who exist in the shadows of our society. Their lack of legal status makes them easy prey for economic exploitation by unscrupulous employers that drag down wages and working conditions for everyone.
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Categories: comprehensive immigration reform, economy
