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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Legalizing AZ’s Undocumented Would Benefit All Workers

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009   

Phoenix, AZ – Legalizing the estimated 200,000 undocumented workers in Arizona would improve wages and working conditions for all workers in the state, according to a new report. Angela Kelley, director of the nonpartisan Immigration Policy Center (IPC), says her organization has pulled together research to show that, as the middle class shrinks, legalization could stop unscrupulous bosses from undercutting wages.

"Today's honest employers, who are trying to follow the law, are behind the eight ball when dishonest competitors hire undocumented workers and pay them less, with a huge advantage."

Legalization would boost tax collections at all levels of government by $66 billion over the next few years, the report concludes.

An Arizona State University study indicates stepped-up immigration enforcement is pushing more undocumented workers into the underground economy. Fiscal Policy Institute economist David Kallick, who contributed to the IPC report, says the result is lower tax revenue.

"The cost of the underground economy to taxpayers is pretty substantial. The idea is bringing undocumented immigrants into the 'above-ground' economy, and making sure that they pay taxes just like everyone else."

The IPC report also notes legalized workers are more likely to learn English, improve their job skills, and move into higher-paying positions. Dan Siciliano, executive director of the Law, Economics and Business program at Stanford University Law School, says that should be the goal for reform.

"The trick is to keep the people who will work hard and invest in the United States here, still working hard so that they might open businesses, grow restaurants."

Legalization opponents claim such thinking ignores the costs to government for services currently provided to undocumented immigrants - like education, fire and police protection. Kelley counters that those claims are usually overestimated, and that they neglect to include the positive side of how growing the legal workforce helps grow the economy. Another report, from the University of Arizona, estimates undocumented workers already add at least $29 billion a year to Arizona's economy.

The IPC report is online, at www.immigrationpolicy.org.



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