Dear Commons Community,

In an editorial entitled, Heritage Foundation phony immigration study has political goal:   Right wing think tank offers nonsense to scare away support, the New York Daily News yesterday panned the Heritage Foundation as a mouthpiece for right wing causes and not as a serious think tank.  Referring to a study by Robert Rector and Jason Richwine that estimated a cost of $6.3 trillion as the supposed public expense if Congress would pass an amnesty program for immigrants,   the editorial characterized the Heritage Foundation as a producer of “political screed not serious analysis”.

“To reach the number [$6.3 trillion], Rector and Richwine purport to total up the cost of the services the undocumented-turned-documented immigrants would use and compare the figure with taxes they project the immigrants would pay.

Since those taxes would not cover the services, as calculated, Rector and Richwine brand each immigrant and the children of each immigrant dead weights — and multiply by 50 to pump things up to $6.3 trillion over the next half-century.

The study ignores every piece of the immigration bill that’s designed to provide a shot in the arm to the economy. Such as a dramatic hike in the number of highly skilled workers, a guest worker program that would deliver talent to a wide range of industries and a shift from immigration based on family ties to a system weighted toward job skills.

Still more, the report takes a horrendously dim view of upward mobility in the U.S. It portrays the immigrants and their kids as endlessly costing more money than they contribute because, in the authors’ estimation, they’ll never rise much above working class.”

We thank the Daily News and it editorial board for their diligence in exposing the Heritage Foundation for what it is – a political hack organization.

Tony