House Hearing a Sham, Advocates Say

WASHINGTON — The Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for today billed as an inquiry into the impact of immigration. In fact, that hearing is stacked with anti-immigrant extremists whose testimony parrots Republican campaign ads. 

Responsible research by the Petersen Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the congressionally-chartered National Academy of Science finds that immigration is a net economic gain for the nation and a net fiscal positive for the federal budget. This includes undocumented immigration. A University of California - Los Angeles analysis found that a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would generate $1.5 trillion in gross domestic product growth over 10 years, more than $350 billion in tax revenue (more than enough federal funding required to cover every uninsured person in the United States through Medicaid for a year), and more than 370,000 jobs.

The Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement did not call witnesses from these research institutions. Instead, the majority sought the input of partisans like Steven Camarota, of the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “an anti-immigrant hate group,” because of “its repeated circulation of white nationalist and antisemitic writers in its weekly newsletter and the commissioning of a policy analyst who had previously been pushed out of the conservative Heritage Foundation for his embrace of racist pseudoscience.”

Reacting to the hearing, the Protecting Immigrant Families coalition issued the following statement by its director, Adriana Cadena:

“Today’s sham hearing was just the latest reminder that the U.S. House of Representatives has become a no-fact zone. Responsible research has shown time and again that immigration – including undocumented immigration – is an economic win for the nation and a fiscal win for the federal government. But House Judiciary leadership isn’t interested in facts, and today’s stunt was a thinly veiled election year bid to drive anti-immigrant voter turnout.”