Economic Blame Game
U.S. Unemployment is Not Caused by Immigration

November 19, 2009

Washington D.C. - Today on Capitol Hill, Congressmen Steve King and Lamar Smith will host a forum on the impact of "illegal immigration on American jobs." Panelists will likely attempt to draw a direct correlation between U.S. immigration policy and unemployment, just as they do with all other domestic issues including the environment, security, and health care. As in the past, their only solution is to deport more immigrants. This is a "solution" that neither helps American workers nor solves our immigration crisis.

While it is true that the United States is currently experiencing its highest unemployment levels in a generation, and Americans are desperate to find steady work, it is untrue that subtracting 8.3 million unauthorized immigrant workers from the labor force would automatically improve job prospects for the 15.7 million Americans who are now unemployed. The fact is that employment is not a "zero sum" game. Mass deportation is not the solution to the nation's unemployment problem.

Furthermore:

The notion that unemployed natives could simply be "swapped" for employed unauthorized immigrants is not valid economically. In reality, native workers and immigrants workers are not easily interchangeable.
Even if unemployed native workers were willing to travel across the country or take jobs for which they are overqualified, that is hardly a long-term strategy for economic recovery.
Removing millions of unauthorized workers, taxpayers, and consumers from our fragile economy would only make matters worse.
Legalizing unauthorized workers would benefit the economy by increasing tax revenues and consumer spending.
The Immigration Policy Center has developed the following fact check to further debunk claims that U.S. unemployment is caused by immigration.

The Economic Blame Game: U.S. Unemployment is Not Caused by Immigration (IPC Fact Check, November 19, 2009)