The current immigration reform bill may reduce the federal budget deficit by roughly $900 billion over 20 years, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report on the economic benefits and cost of the Senate's bill.
The CBO report finds that direct spending and revenues under the bill would decrease federal budget deficits by $197 billion from 2014 to 2023, and an estimated $700 billion from 2024 to 2033.
The report also finds that with the bill's passage, 8 million immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally would gain legal status. That number falls three million short of the 11 million immigrants estimated to be living in the country illegally.
According to the report, in the next 10 years the passage of the immigration bill would result in:
- Increase the U.S. population by about 10 million people, or by 3 percent.
- Increase the work force by about 6 million, or 3.5 percent.
- Decrease wages by 0.1 percent.
- Increase in total factor productivity — its growth over time is a measure of the rate of technological advancement — would be 0.7 percent.
