Progressive News Feeds

A Bloomberg Businessweek article pushed the myth that immigrants will take away jobs from high-skilled American workers. In fact, numerous studies show that highly skilled immigrants expand the number of jobs for all workers

Tags: america, article, author, democrats, education, elections, environment, immigrant, science, technology

Hospitals would need to check the immigration status of uninsured patients under a new bill introduced by an Arizona lawmaker. Rep. Steve Smith’s (R) H.B

Tags: #abortion, america, children, feeds, health, immigrant, industry, mexico, politicians, victims, yahoo

Almost 100 people protested against Mitt Romney’s extreme immigration policies outside of a campaign fundraiser the GOP presidential candidate attended at The Club, a private dining club in Birmingham, Alabama.

Tags: alabama, author, facebook, immigrant, lgbt, progressive news, security, sponsor

Welcome to Justiceline, ThinkProgress Justice’s morning round-up of the latest legal news and developments. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @TPJustice Texas has killed Marvin Wilson , a death row inmate who was diagnosed as “mildly mentally retarded” by a court appointed psychologist. Chief Justice Roberts indicates the Supreme Court is likely to consider a lower court decision blocking DNA collection from persons arrested for certain crimes .

Tags: arizona, dna, economy, florida, girls, health, immigrant, tweets, yahoo

Federal agents are investigating a fire that completely destroyed the Islamic Society of Joplin in southwest Missouri on Monday. This is not the first attack on the Joplin mosque — the FBI has already issued a $15,000 reward for information about a July incident, when a surveillance camera caught a man throwing an incendiary device onto the building that damaged the mosque’s roof

Tags: cnn, election, facebook, feeds, immigrant, islamophobia, media, missouri, mosque, progressive news

In a column last week, conservative pundit and global warming denier made an uncharacteristic display of compassion for professional football players , explaining how the changing nature of the sport endangers players’ long term health: Football is bigger than ever, in several senses. Bear Bryant’s 1966 undefeated Alabama team had only 19 players who weighed more than 200 pounds.

Tags: #nfl, author, economy, health, immigrant, media, national football league, police, progressive news

In a 4-3 ruling , the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an argument by proponents of Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) controversial emergency manager law that a repeal referendum should be blocked over the font size of the petitions used.

Tags: economy, election-2012, flash, immigrant, israel, lgbt, media, michigan, police, progressive news, rick-snyder, thinkprogress

Although GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has dodged questions about whether he believes the Constitution protects a woman’s right to use birth control, one of Romney’s top legal advisers is a leading opponent of the right to contraception.

Tags: arizona, birth control, economy, immigrant, lgbt, media, mitt-romney, texas, thinkprogress

Right-wing media are reacting to the Obama administration’s decision to allow some young undocumented immigrants to stay and work in America by suggesting immigration takes jobs away from American workers. In fact, economists agree that more immigration does not take away jobs from Americans and is a net plus for the economy. Policy Change Will Allow Eligible Undocumented Immigrants To Remain In The U.S. And Legally Work Secretary Napolitano: U.S. Will Allow Certain Young People Brought To U.S. As Children To Apply To Remain In The Country. A press release by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explained that the immigration policy change means that “certain young people who were brought to the United States as young children, do not present a risk to national security or public safety, and meet several key criteria will be considered for relief from removal from the country or from entering into removal proceedings. Those who demonstrate that they meet the criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and will be eligible to apply for work authorization.” [Department of Homeland Security, 6/15/12 ] Economists Agree That Immigration Doesn’t Take Away American Workers’ Jobs And Contributes To The Economy WSJ : Labor Economist “Found That Higher Levels Of Immigration Coincided With Lower Levels Of Unemployment.” Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason L. Riley wrote of suggestions that “immigrant labor harms the job prospects of Americans”: But if immigrants, legal or illegal, displace U.S. workers, why was there less unemployment in the U.S. during the Clinton and Bush administrations, when we had higher levels of immigration, than we have today, when net migration from Mexico is zero? Nor is this a new phenomenon. The labor economist Richard Vedder of Ohio University looked at the relationship between immigration and U.S. unemployment throughout the 20th century and found that higher levels of immigration coincided with lower levels of unemployment. Immigrants to the U.S. not only seek jobs but also increase demand for goods and services, thus providing incentives for businesses to invest in capital, expand operations and hire more workers. Moreover, the immigrants who come here typically aren’t replicas of Americans in terms of their education level and skills. They are concentrated at the high end and low end of the skills spectrum and are much more likely to be competing with other immigrants for jobs than to be displacing natives in the workplace. [ The Wall Street Journal , Political Diary, 6/18/12 , subscription required] Federal Reserve Bank Of San Francisco: “There Is No Evidence” That Immigrants’ Positive Effects On The Economy Comes “At The Expense Of Jobs For Workers Born In The United States.” From a 2010 San Francisco Fed letter highlighting research on the long-term effects of immigration on employment: Immigration in recent decades has significantly increased the presence of foreign-born workers in the United States. The impact of these immigrants on the U.S. economy is hotly debated. Some stories in the popular press suggest that immigrants diminish the job opportunities of workers born in the United States. Others portray immigrants as filling essential jobs that are shunned by other workers. Economists who have analyzed local labor markets have mostly failed to find large effects of immigrants on employment and wages of U.S.-born workers (see Borjas 2006; Card 2001, 2007, 2009; and Card and Lewis 2007). [T]here is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run. Data on U.S.-born worker employment imply small effects, with estimates never statistically different from zero. [Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 8/30/10 ] EPI: “There Is Broad Agreement Among Academic Economists That [Immigration] Has A Small But Positive Impact” On Wages Overall. A February 2010 paper from the Economic Policy Institute details how an influx of workers creates demand for goods and services, creating more jobs and provides a net positive effect on the economy: In the ongoing debate over immigration policy in the United States, the impact of immigrants on the wages of native-born workers has been a central point of disagreement. There is broad agreement among academic economists on one point: that immigration has a small but positive impact on the wages of native-born workers overall. Although new immigrant workers add to the labor supply, they also consume goods and services, creating more jobs. In other words, as the labor force expands (as it is always doing, due to both native population growth and immigration), the economy adjusts and expands with it, and  average  wages are not hurt. [Economic Policy Institute, 2/4/10 ] Economists Francesco D’Amuri And Giovanni Peri: “There Is Hardly Any Evidence That Immigrant Workers Have A Negative Effect On The Wages Of Native Workers … Or That They Crowd-Out Other Jobs In The US.” Peri and D’Amuri wrote in 2010 that immigrants do not have a negative effect on wages, nor do they crowd-out jobs: Despite popular belief, often based on anecdotes and bodged analysis, there is hardly any evidence that immigrant workers have a negative effect on the wages of native workers (see for instance Card 2009 and Glitz 2007) or that they crowd-out other jobs in the US (Card and Di Nardo 2000) or Europe. On the contrary, some authors emphasise the existence of a potentially positive effect of immigrants on the demand for native workers (Manacorda et al. forthcoming). [W]e analyse the net impact of immigration on natives’ employment and we confirm previous results that did not find any significant effect. Moreover, natives’ skill upgrading due to immigration could account for a 0.6% increase in average wages of natives in the 2008-2020 period, according to our simulations combining results of the empirical analysis with long-term demographic projections for Europe (Carone 2005). [VoxEU.org, 10/31/10 ] But Right-Wing Media Suggest Immigration Policy Change Will Result In Job Losses For Americans Fox’s Juliet Huddy: You’re Going To Have Undocumented Immigrants In The Work Force “Potentially [Taking] Jobs Away From People Who … Were Born Here.” On Fox & Friends Sunday , co-host Juliet Huddy claimed that native-born workers could potentially have jobs “taken away” by undocumented workers: HUDDY: You also have the fact that you’re going to have a lot of people who are now again active for the work force, who are going to be taking jobs – potentially — jobs away from people who are here legally or were born here. [Fox News, Fox & Friends Sunday , 6/17/12] Rush Limbaugh: Obama Is Going To “Flood The Jobs Market With 800,000 Illegal Kids.” Limbaugh echoed a question from Neil Munro, a reporter from the Daily Caller that interrupted President Obama during his announcement of the immigration policy change, and suggested that the policy change would hurt American workers: LIMBAUGH: All Munro did was ask the question that should have been on the mind of every American watching. Why do you favor foreigners over Americans here? You’re going to flood the job market with 800,000 illegal kids or youths – Why are you giving them precedents and favorable treatment over Americans? [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show , 6/18/12]

Tags: author, clinton, education, elections, immigrant, politics, unemployment, us politics, war

Fox News pushed the falsehood that the Department of Homeland Security’s change in immigration policy will cause people “to go running over the border” in order to get their children a place to stay in America. In fact, the  new policy , which exempts certain young undocumented immigrants from deportation, applies only to immigrants who have been living in the United States for five years. After President Obama announced the new policy, Fox News has reacted with  racially-charged   slurs  and  falsehoods . Today was no different with  Fox & Friends Sunday  co-host Clayton Morris saying that there could be “a major spike of illegal immigration in the short term, with people thinking, hey, here is my window of opportunity to be — get my kids a place to stay in America” and co-host Juliet Huddy interjecting, “Now’s the time to go running over the border.”  In fact, people who immigrate to the United States now are not covered by the DHS policy change. The announcement  states  that to be eligible, an immigrant must have come to the United States before the age of sixteen, graduated from high school or be an honorably discharged veteran, and not have a criminal background. In addition, the immigrant must have lived continually in the United States for five years and been present on the date of the policy announcement, June 16, 2012. Furthermore, immigrants must have “verifiable documentation” that they have been living here for five years:   Only those individuals who can prove through verifiable documentation that they meet these criteria will be eligible for deferred action. Individuals will not be eligible if they are not currently in the United States and cannot prove that they have been physically present in the United States for a period of not less than 5 years immediately preceding today’s date.

Tags: america, children, clayton-morris, face-the-nation, feeds, immigrant, jobs, media matters, policy-change, united