The AFL-CIO prepared Seven Immigration Myths and Facts addressing current immigration issues

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Seven Immigration Myths and Facts 
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Seven Immigration Myths and Facts 
Abstract 
The AFL-CIO prepared Seven Immigration Myths and Facts addressing current immigration issues. 
Keywords 
unions, labor movement, organizing, representation, AFL-CIO, immigration, public policy, enforcement, 
workers' rights, legislation 
Comments 
Suggested Citation 
AFL-CIO. Seven immigration myths and facts. Washington, DC: Author. 
Required Publishers Statement 
© AFL-CIO. Document posted with special permission by the copyright holder. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/laborunions/75 
AFL-CIO 
A movement of working families 
Seven Immigration Myths and Facts 
Myth: Immigration into the United States is bad for American workers. 
Fact: Bad immigration policy, not immigration in and of itself, hurts American workers. 
Many studies have determined that immigration does not negatively affect American workers, 
and several have found that immigration actually has a positive net effect for many native-born 
workers.1234 That is because immigrants are both workers and consumers, and their presence in 
the United States increases demand for products and services within the United States, creating 
new jobs and boosting wages in the process. 
However, the current broken immigration system does hurt American workers. The system of 
distributing a fixed number of work visas based on arbitrary quotas that are unresponsive to 
fluctuations in the U.S. economy's demand for labor creates incentives for millions of people to 
immigrate into the United States without legal authorization to do so. As a result, today there are 
between 10 and 12 million undocumented workers within the United States. Such workers are 
vulnerable to unscrupulous employers that take advantage of their undocumented status in 
order to avoid paying them prevailing wages or fulfilling basic health and safety standards. 
Because undocumented immigrant workers labor in industries right alongside documented 
immigrants and American-born workers, the exploitation of undocumented workers drives down 
standards for native-born workers as well. 
This dynamic has increased in recent years, as enhanced focus on immigration enforcement 
has moved unauthorized workers further underground, lowering their pay, and creating a 
greater demand for unauthorized workers. When a business cuts costs by hiring unauthorized 
workers for lower wages, its competitors become more likely to hire unauthorized workers for 
lower wages, as well, in order to benefit from the same cost savings.5 Documented immigrants, 
native-born workers, and undocumented immigrants alike lose out in this raise to the bottom. 
s : * 
Myth: Enforcement-only approaches to dealing with the nation's immigration crisis such as 
increased border security and Arizona's "show me your papers law" can effectively keep 
undocumented immigrants out of the United States. 
Fact: Enforcement-only approaches to dealing with the nation's immigration crisis have been 
. proven to be expensive, ineffective, lethal, and have disastrous effects on workers' rights. 
V s 
The number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically since 
the early 1990s despite tens of billions of dollars of federal immigration enforcement spending. 
The U.S. Border Patrol's annual budget has increased by over 700% percent since 1992—the 
year before the current era of concentrated immigration enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico 
border. At the same time, the amount of money spent on each apprehension has increased by 
over 1,000%. The budget for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent 
agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has increased nearly twofold, from 
$6.0 billion in 2003 to $11.3 billion in 2009. And the budget for Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement (ICE), DHS' interior-enforcement counterpart to Customs and Border Prtoection, 
has also increased by over 80%, from $3.3 billion in 2003 to $5.9 billion in 2009.6 
Despite these massive budgetary increases, the unauthorized immigrant population of the 
United States has roughly tripled in size over the past two decades, from an estimated 3.5 
million in 1990 to 11.9 million in 2008. The fact is that nearly all unauthorized migrants still 
eventually succeed in entering the United States. Indeed, one study showed that the vast 
majority of unauthorized immigrants—between 92 and 98 percent—keep trying to cross the 
border until they make it.7 
While ineffective at stopping the migration of undocumented workers, the unintended 
consequence of enforcement-focused immigration policy has been to make the southwestern 
border more lethal. By channeling unauthorized migrants through extremely hazardous 
mountain and desert areas, rather than the relatively safe urban corridors used by migrants in 
the past, increased border-enforcement has result in the number of migrant deaths increasing 
twofold in the decade following 1995.8 One report estimates that 5,607 migrants died while 
crossing the border between 1994 and 2008.9 
Another consequence of the increased levels of immigration enforcement has been the 
undermining of labor rights. The U.S. government's single-minded focus on immigration 
enforcement without regard to violations of workplace laws has enabled employers with rampant 
labor and employment violations to thrive by employing undocumented workers who are terrified 
to complain about substandard wages, unsafe conditions, and lack of benefits, or to demand 
their right to bargain collectively. 
Worst yet, there have been several documented cases of ICE and other government agencies 
directly undermining the assertion of labor rights. ICE has conducted high-profile workplace 
raids in the middle of Department of Labor and other agency investigations into labor and 
employment law violations. Similarly, ICE has cooperated with employer requests to verify 
workers' immigration status in the middle of workplace disputes, and in other instances 
government actors such as local law enforcement have interfered with workers' assertion of 
their labor rights, culminating in ICE arrests of the victimized workers.10These actions, 
illustrative of ICE's single-minded focus on immigration enforcement at all costs, have had the 
predictable effect of chilling the assertion and exercise of workplace rights, hurting all workers 
regardless of immigration status. "Show me your papers" laws like Arizona's SB1070 add yet 
another tool to corporate employers' anti-union, anti-worker tool belt. 
s : > 
Myth: Comprehensive immigration reform legislation which includes a pathway to citizenship 
for undocumented workers would further hurt the economy at a moment when our economy can 
least afford it. 
Fact: Comprehensive immigration reform that creates a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized 
immigrants in the United States would be a boon to the economy and an integral piece of fixing 
the broken economy for all working Americans. 
It has been estimated comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in 
cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.11 That's because by eliminating the 
undocumented underclass of workers that employers use to undercut wages and drive down 
standards, comprehensive immigration reform will ensure that all workers have full labor rights, 
which would result in higher wages across the board. 
Myth: Immigrants commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans. 
Fact: A century of research finds that crime rates for immigrants are actually lower than for 
native-born Americans. 
Numerous studies by independent researchers and government commissions over the past 100 
years repeatedly and consistently have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or 
be behind bars than the native-born. In the early decades of the 20th century, during the previous 
era of large-scale immigration, various federal commissions found lower levels of crime among 
the foreign-born than the native-born. More recently, the U.S. Commission on Immigration 
Reform reached a similar conclusion in a 1994 report, 12as did the U.S. Department of Justice in 
a 2000 report.13 
Similarly, crime rates have declined most starkly in states with the highest immigration growth. 
From 1999 to 2006, the total crime rate declined 13.6% in the18 highest immigrant destination 
states, compared to a 7.1% decline in the other 32 states.u According to the FBI, the four large 
U.S. cities (with populations of at least 500,000) with the lowest crime rates—San Diego, 
Phoenix, El Paso, and Austin—are all in border states and have high immigrant populations. 15 
' N 
Myth: Giving birth to a child within the United States allows undocumented immigrants quickly 
and easily become legal U.S. residents and avoid deportation. 
Fact: Having American-born children does not give undocumented immigrants a free pass to 
legal status. 
Under the 14th amendment, all babies born within the borders of the United States are U.S. 
citizens. However, citizen children cannot sponsor their parents for citizenship until they turn 21 
years old. Furthermore, if a citizen child's parents were ever in the United States without legal 
status, they must return to their home country for 10 years before applying to immigrate to the 
United States legally. Therefore the "anchor baby" argument that pregnant mothers cross the 
border into the United States illegally in order to give birth and easily gain legal status through 
their citizen children is an illogical stretch, at best. Such mothers would have to be thinking 
twenty to thirty years in advance and anticipate spending ten years apart from their U.S. citizen 
children. 
Similarly, being the parent of U.S. citizen children is provides no protection against deportation. 
A January, 2009 study by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General 
found that more than 100,000 non-citizen parents of U.S. citizen children were deported from 
the United States between 1998 and 2007.16 Many such deportations result in families being 
ripped apart, leaving U.S. citizen children and entire communities traumatized and vulnerable. 
Myth: Immigrants and their children come to the United States in search of a free ride and are 
a drain on our social services and our economy. 
Fact: The vast majority of immigrants come to the United States to work hard and take care of 
their families and themselves, and in doing so contribute more to government coffers than they 
use in social services. 
Numerous landmark studies have found that immigrants generate public revenue that exceeds 
their public costs over time. Indeed, one study found that immigrants pay approximately $80,000 
more in taxes than they receive in state, federal, and local benefits over their life times.17 
Another study similarly concluded that "the long-run impact of immigration on public budgets is 
likely to be positive," adding that "only a forward-looking projection of taxes and government 
spending can offer an accurate picture of the long-run fiscal consequences of admitting new 
immigrants."18 
Undocumented immigrants do not qualify and therefore cannot receive any public benefits 
beyond emergency services and public primary and secondary education. Undocumented 
immigrants do not qualify for food stamps, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid Medicare "Premium Free" Part A, public 
housing or Section 8 programs. Furthermore, legal permanent residents do not qualify for the 
abovementioned programs unless they have resided in the United States legally for at least five 
years. 
Immigrant labor force participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrant 
workers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (14%) than they do the U.S. population 
(11%).19 Due to their parents' high rate of work-force participation, overwhelming majority of 
U.S. born children of immigrant parents (88%) live in working households. And despite the fact 
that such children are more likely to live in poverty than their peers whose parents were born in 
the United States, (20% vs. 16%) they are less likely than their peers to receive food stamps 
(14% vs. 17%).20 
Simply put, immigrants do not come to the United States to have their children and take a 
handout for the U.S. government. The great majority of immigrants come to the United States to 
work and provide for themselves and their families. 
Myth: Anti-immigrant politicians have the best interests of the American worker in mind. 
Fact: The most rabidly anti-immigrant politicians in U.S. politics are also some of the most anti-
worker politicians in the country. Many such politicians have skillfully diverted attention from 
their anti-worker agenda by drumming up anti-immigrant anxiety and fear in their constituents. 
Every two years, one of the leading anti-immigrant groups, the Federation for American 
Immigration Reform (FAIR), publishes a "Congressional Voting Report" evaluating whether 
Members of Congress have voted as they recommend. FAIR is no ordinary interest group, it has 
been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its disturbing 
connections to white nationalist organizations and individuals and is part of a network of 
extremist organizations created by well-known white nationalist John Tanton. FAIR is also the 
organization behind the Coalition for the Future American Worker, a front group designed to put 
a "pro-worker" face on the anti-immigrant lobby's anti-worker agenda. 
Of the 87 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who received an "A" from FAIR in the 
110th Congress, 94% voted against the Employee Free Choice Act, 93% voted against equal 
pay for women, and 83% voted against extending unemployment compensation. It is therefore 
unsurprising that 93% of FAIR'S champions earned a grade of "F" from the AFL-CIO. 
Despite efforts to couch their anti-immigrant policies in populist, pro-worker rhetoric, the truth is 
that many of the politicians that are the greatest opponents of immigrant workers are the 
greatest opponents of American workers as well. 
Sources 
1. Shierholz, Heidi. 2010. "Immigration and Wages: Methodological advancements confirm modest gains for native workers." 
Economic Policy Institute Brieifing Paper no. 225. Available at http://epi.3cdn.net/81ac21ed8143664879 wvm6bakvu.pdf. 
2. Peri, Giovanni. 2010. "The Impact of Immigrants in Recession and Economic Expansion." Migration Policy Institute. Available 
at http://www.miarationpolicv.org/pubs/Peri-June2010.pdf. 
3. Barcellos, Silvia. 2009. "The Dynamics of Immigration and Wages." Manuscript, Princeton University. Available at 
www.princeton.edu/~silvie/Barcellos JMP.pdf. 
4. Card, David. 2005. "Is the New Immigration Really So Bad?" The Economic Journal. 115(507):F300-F323. Available at 
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11547.pdf?new window=1. 
5. J. David Brown, Julie L. Hotchkiss, and Myriam Quispe-Agnoli. 2008. "Undocumented Workers Employment and Firm 
Survivability." Working Paper 28. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Available at 
http://www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacvdocs/wp0828.pdf. 
6. Hinojos-Ojeda, Dr. Raul. 2010. "Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive 
Immigration Reform." Center for American Progress and Immigration Policy Center. Available at 
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/raising the floor.html. 
7. Cornelius, Wayne A, and others, "Controlling Unauthorized Immigration from Mexico: The Failure of ..Prevention Through 
Deterrence" and the Need for Comprehensive Reform," The Immigration Policy Center and the Center for Comparative 
Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego. Available at 
http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/CCISbriefing061008.pdf 
8. Government Accountability Office, "Illegal Immigration: Border-Crossing Deaths Have Doubled Since 1995," GAO-06-770, 
Report to Honorable Bill Frist, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, August 2006, pp. 3-4. 
9. Jimenez, Maria. "Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U .S.-Mexico Border," American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego 
& Imperial Counties and Mexico"s National Commission on Human Rights. 
10. Rebecca Smith, Ana Avendano, and Julie Martinez Ortega. 2009. "ICED OUT: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interferid 
with Workers" Rights." National Employment Law Project, AFL-CIO and American Rights at Work Education Fund. Available at 
http://www.nelp.Org/page/-/Justice/ICED OUT.pdf?nocdn=1 
11. Hinojos-Ojeda, Dr. Raul. 2010. "Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive 
Immigration Reform." Center for American Progress and Immigration Policy Center. Available at 
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/raising the floor.html. 
12. Ruben G. Rumbaut and Walter A. Ewing. "The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration 
Rates among Native and Foreign-Born Men." (Immigration Policy Center, American Immigration Law foundation, Spring 2007). 
13. National Institute of Justice, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. "On Immigration and Crime," Ramiro Martiniez, Jr., 
and Matthew T. Lee, July 200. 
14. Richard Nadler. "Immigration and the Wealth of States." (Overland Park, KS: Americas Majority Foundation: January 2008). 
15. Tim Padgett, "The ..Dangerous" Border: Actually One of America"s Safest Places," Time, July 30, 2010. 
16. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, "Removals Involving Illegal Alien Parents of United States 
Citizen Children." January 2009. 
17. National Research Council, The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration, ed. James P. 
Smith and Barry Edmonston (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1997). 
18. Council of Economic Advisors, "lmmigration"s Economic Impact," Washington, D.C. June 20, 2007. 
19. Randy Capps, et. al., A Profile of the Low-Wage Immigrant Workforce (The Urban Institute, Immigration Studies Program: 
Immigrant Families and Worker Facts and Perspectives Brief 4, Nov. 2003). 
20. Children of Immigrants Data Tool, http://datatool.urban.org/charts/datatool/pages.cfm. The Urban Institute. Data from the 
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series datasets drawn from the 2005 and 2006 American Community Survey. 


Seven Immigration Myths and Facts

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