Editorial: Looking for work

Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006 | 7:33 a.m.

A recently released report says that large increases in immigration to the United States since 1990 have not led to higher unemployment for Americans.

The report, prepared by the Pew Hispanic Center - a nonpartisan research group that doesn't advocate policy positions - says there is no evidence to indicate that the increase in immigration has consistently taken jobs away from American workers.

The study didn't examine whether immigration increases have affected wages. It looked at U.S. Census data and compared immigration and unemployment rates across the country. In a majority of cases, states that had immigration rates above the national average - including Nevada - also had above-average employment rates for native-born workers.

The study's author told the Associated Press that economic growth played the largest role in determining unemployment rates among native-born workers. And that conclusion is important as Congress wrestles with immigration reform.

One of the main arguments used by those who advocate very strict immigration laws - including measures that provide no timely path to citizenship - is that these workers take jobs away from Americans, leading to higher unemployment among those who were born here.

It is the kind of divisive, damaging rhetoric used by those who support a Republican-backed House measure that seeks to make felons of those who have come to America illegally, without giving them any reasonable path to citizenship. Such claims not only serve to cause anger against all immigrants - including those who are here legally - but they also, according to this latest Pew study, are not based in fact.

It is time to take the false assumptions and polarizing declarations out of the immigration reform discussion and focus on the facts. Certainly, the United States needs to secure its borders. But it also must find a way to help those who have already established themselves and their families here to remain in the United States legally. These people are not a threat to Americans' jobs or the way of life in a nation that was, after all, founded by immigrants.