Speech #1090134982

We are talking about a lot of issues that may be hot buttons and of concern. and I am pleased we have a fence at the border. but at the same time. the great Senate of the United States needs to think about the future. This is what we learned. The economic experts who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 25. 2006. at the immigration economic impacts hearing agreed that lowskilled immigrants unavoidably depress the wages of American workers in lowskilled job categories. They held. it is fair to say. a common consensus. Some are proimmigration. and they argue benefits and other things. but they all held a common consensus that highskilled immigrants are better for the economy than lowskilled workers. Lowskilled workers are an overall net drain on the economy. Professor Richard Freeman. the Herbert S. Ascherman professor of economics at Harvard University. testified. among other things: One of the concerns of when immigrants come into the country is that they may take some jobs from Americans or drive down the wages of some Americans. Obviously. if there are a large number of immigrants coming in. and if they are coming in at a bad economic time. thats very likely to happen. He went on to talk about the impact of highskilled workers. He noted: I think America makes a huge gain. and much of the gains are to us. Some of the gains are to the immigrants. of course. You will notice he says that more than once. He talks about who actually gains from immigration. For low skilled workers who come here. it is a gain to them because they are coming to a better and freer and more prosperous country. But the real question our Nation should ask is. How does it benefit us? He says: There are gains to us from highskilled workers and to the immigrants. He goes on to say: Having a lot of immigrants coming in at the top. it does make it more difficult for some young Americans to advance in those fields. but we can recompense the young Americans with other policies. He goes on to note: Its very important to understand that the biggest beneficiaries from immigration tend to be the immigrants. particularly if you are a lowskilled immigrant. He adds this: If you are a poor immigrant. your income in the United States will be six to eight times what it is in Mexico. Professor Dan Siciliano. director of the program in law. economics. and business at the Stanford Law School. a pretty good law school. is a pretty strong advocate in favor of immigration. but he talked about the question of the cost of lowskilled immigrants. He said: If you look at the fiscalleconomic impact. which is the Governments coffers impact. it might be true that lowerskilled workers. just like all of us. have a negative impact on the fiscal bottom line. And so we may have a modest net negative fiscal impact for all lowwage workers in the United States. not just immigrants. This Is not unique to immigrants. documented or undocumented. What he was saying is that lowskilled American workers who are not trained. not skilled. and not educated. will draw more from the Federal Treasury than they put into it. That is one of the reasons we work so hard to train and provide skills to American workers. so they can rise and be successful and reach their highest possible aspirations.