Immigration Reform Gathers Steam

Janurary 11, 2013

Policymakers are mulling proposals to reform the nation's immigration laws, including a potential path to citizenship for most of the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and endorsing an increase of certain types of foreign-born workers. In this recent conference call with RAND Media Relations Director Jeffrey Hiday, James P. Smith, the RAND Distinguished Chair in Labor Markets and Demographic Studies, provided an overview of the economic consequences of immigration. About 40 million residents of the United States are foreign born, accounting for about 13 percent of the nation's population.