Just the Facts

While proponents of harsh immigration bills in Mississippi claim that passing these laws would save the state money, experience from other states shows these immigration laws will actually cost the state millions of dollars. Implementing the laws and defending them in the courts would cost Mississippi’s taxpayers millions they can ill afford. The laws would make it more difficult for businesses to operate in the state and would deter investment. The loss of taxpayers and consumers would devastate Mississippi’s economy. 

After the legislatures in Arizona, Alabama, and other states approved their immigration-control bills, these states experienced negative economic consequences. Meanwhile, other states have considered similar proposals, but abandoned them after concluding that the economic and enforcement costs would prove too high. 

Harsh immigration laws will harm Mississippi’s economy.
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Published On: Thu, Feb 02, 2012 | Download File

(Updated January 2012) - Immigrants are not the cause of unemployment in the United States. Empirical research has demonstrated repeatedly that there is no correlation between immigration and unemployment. In fact, immigrants—including the unauthorized—create jobs through their purchasing power and their entrepreneurship, buying goods and services from U.S. businesses and creating their own businesses, both of which sustain U.S. jobs. The presence of new immigrant workers and consumers in an area also spurs the expansion of businesses, which creates new jobs. In addition, immigrants and native-born workers are usually not competing in the same job markets because they tend to have different levels of education, work in different occupations, specialize in different tasks, and live in different places. Because they complement each other in the labor market rather than compete, immigrants increase the productivity—and the wages—of native-born workers. In the words of economist Giovanni Peri, “immigrants expand the U.S. economy’s productive capacity, stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity,” and “there is no evidence that these effects take place at the expense of jobs for workers born in the United States.” Read more...

Published On: Fri, Jan 13, 2012 | Download File

The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the Lone Star State (Updated January 2012)

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Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Texas’s population and electorate.
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Published On: Wed, Jan 11, 2012 | Download File

The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the Ocean State (Updated January 2012)

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Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Rhode Island’s population and electorate.
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Published On: Wed, Jan 11, 2012 | Download File