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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Biden urged to legalize migrants as part of infrastructure plan 

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A group of more than 60 economists urged President Joe Biden to create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in his forthcoming economic and infrastructure plan, arguing it would raise US wages, productivity and tax revenue.

The economists, including President Barack Obama’s former top economist Jason Furman and David Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute, which champions liberal economic policies, made the proposal in a letter to the White House obtained by Bloomberg News. Legalizing millions of immigrants—especially those in jobs considered essential during the pandemic—would strengthen the economy while providing them with workplace protections, they argued.

“Offering them the chance to earn citizenship will help to ensure that the economic recovery reaches all corners of society, including those that have disproportionately been on the front lines of the pandemic and yet left out of prior relief bills, and establishes a more stable and equitable foundation on which future economic success can be built,” the economists wrote in the letter, which was sent to the White House on Thursday.

The economists addressed the letter to Biden’s top economic adviser Brian Deese and Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients, as well as the president’s picks to lead the White House budget office and Council of Economic Advisers, Neera Tanden and Cecilia Rouse, respectively.

The liberal Center for American Progress, which has been run by Tanden, and FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group founded by technology and business leaders, got together on the letter, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The letter shows that the administration is facing pressure from the left to include a broad range of issues in its so-called Build Back Better package, a sweeping infrastructure and spending plan that Biden proposed during the 2020 campaign. The legislation is expected to follow on the heels of the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” that the president is currently pushing through Congress in his opening bid to resuscitate the economy.

Adding a route to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, however, could complicate passage of the infrastructure bill because most congressional Republicans regard such proposals as improper “amnesty” for people who migrated to the US without authorization.

The letter also demonstrates a willingness among administration allies to break up Biden’s proposed immigration overhaul into smaller pieces, in order to get key parts passed into law. A citizenship path for the roughly 11 million immigrants living illegally in the US, including those with Temporary Protected Status and people brought to the US as children, known as Dreamers, is included in a comprehensive immigration plan Biden announced on his first day in office.

Pandemic work cited

The economists said that a broad path to citizenship would benefit the economy, but called relief for essential workers especially important. Almost three in four undocumented immigrants in the work force—roughly 5 million people—work in essential jobs including construction, food services and farming, according a study from the Center for American Progress.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has made plain how our public health and economic fates are inextricably tied together, and how harmful shortcomings in one part of our economy affect us all,” the economists said in the letter. “The inverse is also true: conferring citizenship will bring expansive benefits to communities across the country, not only for the individuals directly affected, but for the larger systems—families, and the work force—that they comprise.”

Biden on Thursday urged Congress to move quickly on a large infrastructure improvement plan in a meeting with four senators, declaring that China is poised to “eat our lunch” otherwise.

Biden said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for about two hours in a call on Wednesday.

“If we don’t get moving, they’re going to eat our lunch,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, describing Chinese plans to invest billions of dollars in rail projects, automobile manufacturing and environmental improvements.

“It used to be that infrastructure wasn’t a Democratic or Republican issue,” Biden said. “We’re going to see what we can put together.

Infrastructure-related stocks have rallied this year. United Rentals Inc., which rents equipment to the construction industry, jumped 19 percent this year through Wednesday, the biggest gain on a Standard & Poor’s index of US industrial companies. Martin Marietta Materials Inc., which supplies aggregates such as sand and gravel, climbed 11 percent, while rival Vulcan Materials Co. gained 7.4 percent.

The senators joining him were Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee; Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the senior Republican on the panel; James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican who is a former chairman of the committee; and Ben Cardin of Maryland, chairman of the Small Business Committee.

“It was very good, very good and one reason is that I’ve known the president forever, and we’ve worked together before,” Inhofe told reporters later in the Senate.

Image credits: Bloomberg
Read full article on BusinessMirror

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