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Category: National News

Washington, DC - The President’s Immigration Accountability Executive actions will help secure the border, hold nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants accountable and ensure that everyone plays by the same rules.  Acting within his legal authority, the President is taking an important step to fix our broken immigration system.

These executive actions crack down on illegal immigration at the border, prioritize deporting felons not families, and require certain undocumented immigrants to pass a criminal background check and pay their fair share of taxes as they register to temporarily stay in the US without fear of deportation.

These are commonsense steps, but only Congress can finish the job. As the President acts, he’ll continue to work with Congress on a comprehensive, bipartisan bill—like the one passed by the Senate more than a year ago—that can replace these actions and fix the whole system.

According to an analysis by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the President’s executive actions on immigration would boost economic output by an estimated 0.4 to 0.9 percent over ten years, corresponding to increases in GDP of $90 billion to $210 billion in 2024.

At the same time, the President’s executive actions will expand the country’s tax base by millions of people and billions of dollars.  Individuals potentially eligible for deferred action under the President’s executive actions are in the country today – and have been for many years.  They provide for their families, just like all American citizens.  Many are already in the workforce and contributing Federal, State, and local taxes.  But roughly two-thirds of them don’t pay taxes today.  The President is changing that, ensuring that these individuals have the opportunity to apply for a work authorization and pay taxes.  By allowing those eligible for deferred action to work in this country, both workers and employers will be able to come out from the shadows and contribute payroll taxes, just like all American citizens.

To be sure, the economic benefits of these actions are not as strong as those under the bipartisan legislation that passed in the Senate.  If Congress passes that bill, we will be able to fully realize the economic benefits of commonsense immigration reform.  Independent studies have affirmed that commonsense immigration reform would significantly increase economic growth, shrink the deficit, and boost wages for native-born U.S. workers.