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Lede: According to a new study on immigrant economic impact in the U.S. immigration and economic growth and production go hand-in-hand. Doug Cunningham has more on the report.

By Doug Cunningham

Funded by SEIU 32BJ and the Carnegie Foundation, the Fiscal Policy Institute report assessed immigrant economic impact in the 25 largest U.S. metro economies. It found that instead of hurting the economy, immigrants contribute to the economy in the same proportion as their numbers in the population. Hector Figeuroa is Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU 32BJ in New York City.

[Figueroa]: “What we are finding with this study and a lot of other studies out there who look at the impact if immigrants in the economy is that immigrants are not part of the problem. They’re really part of the solution.”

The report finds that areas with the highest levels of immigration growth also have experienced among the highest economic growth. Figueroa says while employers do exploit undocumented workers to drive wages down, the answer to that is unionization and giving equal labor law protections to all immigrants.

[Figueroa 2]: “What we’re saying is that the problem will never go away until we change the laws and it allows millions of people -who are contributing to our economy like this reports suggest - to be able to do that with the same rights as everybody else.”