Immigrants helped U.S. economy rebound from pandemic

Editor:

It has become fashionable for Trump and some Republicans to bash immigrants. If you believe them, immigrants are a drag on the economy, the source of rising crime rates and other problems.

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, on “60 Minutes” recently stated, “The U.S. economy has benefited from immigration. And frankly, just in the last year a big part of the story of the labor market coming back to better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.”

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in its 10-year economic forecast said immigration is a key reason economic projections are looking better. It added that because of immigrants joining the labor-force, “we estimate from 2023-2034, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) will be greater by about 7 trillion and revenues will be greater by about 1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.”

Based on this information it appears immigrants are an economic plus for the country. Perhaps Republican President Ronald Reagan said it best: “Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”

Perhaps it is time for anti-immigrant Republicans not descended from immigrants to identify themselves. My guess is the group to stand up would be small-only Native Americans.

Jack Capurso

AHS 1960

Ashburn, Va.