Richard Trumka

Reams of new economic data that seem to dispel many of the long-held fears tied to immigration are clearly forcing Congress to stop dragging its feet on the complicated and controversial issue."I think people were quite unaware of the benefits legalization could have to the economy," said Adriana Kugler, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist in the Obama administration's Labor Department.Kugler said the immigration debate has historically tended to focus on "the costs and burdens to the economy." These "costs and burdens" ostensibly caused by influxes of low-skilled immigrant workers who, according to widely-held conventional wisdom, dilute the labor pool, displacing American workers and slashing the wages of those who manage to keep their jobs.But recent data suggest otherwise."There's been a lot of work and data generated in recent years proving the opposite – that immigration in fact provides benefits to the economy," said Kugler.Indeed, ...

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