Little middle ground at immigration debate
Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News
Published September 28, 2007 at midnight
At an immigration debate Thursday at Metropolitan State College of Denver, former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm stressed the environmental impact of illegal immigration and a Boston economist debunked myths about its costs to the U.S.
Benjamin Powell, an assistant professor of economics at Suffolk University, said conservative estimates show immigrants - legal and illegal - contribute $20 billion annually to the U.S. economy, adding it was a modest contribution considering the U.S economy totals $13 trillion.
Lamm countered that $20 billion added to the economy was not worth the impact of having so many people using up the nation's natural resources.
"We're headed toward a population of half a billion by mid-century, one billion by the end of the century. Imagine 16 million Coloradans," he said.
Powell, however, suggested that instead of curtailing the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S., having more workers would boost economic contributions.
Powell also dismissed the notion that immigrants take away jobs from American workers, and that they cause wages to drop.
"Despite the popular belief that immigrants have an impact on wages of native-born population, it, in fact, affects one group of workers: high school dropouts who compete with low-skilled jobs held by immigrant workers," he said.
Lamm disagreed, saying that illegal immigration has contributed to both a loss of jobs for Americans and kept wages down for certain workers.
"Cheap labor is economic cocaine to our employers," he said.
Powell said the supply of immigrant labor "complements American labor, not substitutes it."
"Immigrant labor allows us to do work we're better skilled at. A medical doctor does best outsourcing mowing his lawn and attending patients instead. This is partially where we get our net gain from," he said.
Powell also stressed the benefits to immigrants of working in the United States.
quinterof@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5250
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