Bernanke Recommends Immigration Reform to Jump Start Economy

Last week Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, sat down with a Senate committee to provide testimony on the state of the U.S. economy. While providing ways in which Congress can help jump start the economy, Bernanke cited immigration reform as a crucial piece:

"I think frankly, this is a topic that I can never get much traction on — I think our immigration policy which restricts severely the number of highly-trained skilled immigrants is a problem because bringing those kind of folks in helps our high-tech industries develop more competitively — become more competitive."

Bernanke's comments are another example of the growing stance many economists are taking in defense of comprehensive immigration reform. The Center for American Progress recently published a report estimating a loss of $230 billion if we continued a policy of mass deportation and UCLA's Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda also found through his research that legalizing undocumented workers would rake in $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP over a ten year period. Comprehensive immigration reform could be the ticket to helping us get out of this recession - make sure your representatives know that.

Read more about immigration contributions to the economy.