As Congress works toward the final stages of an immigration reform plan, a new issue brief from the Center for American Progress explores how immigration and the growing Latino population could impact the future political landscape in key states.
Immigration issues among Latino voters were crucial in swinging the 2012 presidential election.
And
the rapid growth and voting power of the Latino population also ensured
key swing states such as Florida, Colorado and Nevada voted for the current Democratic president, according to the brief.
Key states such as
Arizona and North Carolina are also reaching demographic tipping points that could shift the states reliably blue, said Philip Wolgin,
senior policy analyst for immigration at the Center for American
Progress.
“These are states that are becoming swing states in a
way that I think nobody really envisioned would have happened in the
past,” he said.
A legal status and road map to citizenship for the 11 million
undocumented immigrants in the country would have positive impacts on the
U.S. economy, and the sooner reform is implemented, the
bigger the gains, a new report from the Center for American Progress shows.
Citizenship
for the undocumented brings significant increases in economic growth
and earnings as well as tax revenues and jobs, said the report’s co-author Robert Lynch, visiting senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
“Legal
status and citizenship enable the undocumented to produce and earn much
more,” he said. “The resulting productivity and wage gains then ripple
through the economy because immigrants are not just workers, they are
also consumers and tax payers. They will spend their increased earnings
on thousands of things.”
Saying it willingly accepts “mindless” cuts of the sequester, the budget proposal from U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI-1),
chairman of the House Budget Committee, guarantees the loss of 2 million jobs and favors wealthy Americans at the expense of average middle class
families, according to U.S. Reps. Xavier Becerra (D, CA-34) and Donna Edwards (D, MD-4).
“This
is Romney’s comeback, we see him in the letters and words of the Ryan
Republican budget,” said Becerra on a Center for American Progress conference call Monday morning.
“This is essentially the budget that Republican candidates Ryan and
Romney ran on, and they were rejected by the voters because it favors
the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class.”
For
a state that is in dire fiscal circumstances, passing the Religious
Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act in Illinois, which would legalize
same-sex marriage, would generate between $54 million and $103 million in new
spending over the first three years, according to a new report.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says the fiscal cliff can be avoided if lawmakers make the right choices and outlined a progressive plan for them to do just that. The Senate's number 2 Democrat says taxes are the first issue that needs to be addressed followed by reforming entitlements; the latter of which Republicans are adamant about tying to any deal that addresses the fiscal cliff.
"President Obama and Democratic candidates campaigned on the idea that the wealthiest Americans should be asked to pay a little more in taxes -- and voters endorsed it," Durbin said today at a speech for the Center for American Progress.
Green jobs and the clean energy sector have gotten a bad rap due to Republican rhetoric in Washington, according to the Center for American Progress. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has repeatedlybashed green jobs, even calling them "illusory" in one op-ed. He is also in favor of ending the renewable energy production credit, a move that could put at least 37,000 jobs in jeopardy, including those in Illinois. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has said he'd like to create 5 million jobs in
the green sector and allocated $80 million to the industry in the
stimulus package.
The Center for American Progress went to the state where Romney was formerly governor to see just how real the more than 65,000 clean energy jobs are that have been created in Massachusetts. Read more »
As Congress works toward the final stages of an immigration reform plan, a new 
A legal status and road map to citizenship for the 11 million
undocumented immigrants in the country would have positive impacts on the
U.S. economy, and the sooner reform is implemented, the
bigger the gains, a new 
Saying it willingly accepts “mindless” cuts of the sequester, the budget proposal from 
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says the fiscal cliff can be avoided if lawmakers make the right choices and outlined a progressive plan for them to do just that. The Senate's number 2 Democrat says taxes are the first issue that needs to be addressed followed by reforming entitlements; the latter of which Republicans are adamant about tying to any deal that addresses the fiscal cliff.
Green jobs and the clean energy sector have gotten a bad rap due to Republican rhetoric in Washington, according to the Center for American Progress. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has 