Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (June 20-24)

This week, the Supreme Court held a split vote on immigration, resulting in a maintained block on President Obama’s plan to protect from deportation millions of undocumented immigrants who are parents of citizens or permanent residents (DAPA) and young people who were brought to the United States before their 16th birthday and have been in the country since June 15, 2007 (DACA+).

In the Washington Post, Harvard’s Roberto G. Gonzales argues that the Supreme Court ruling “hurts all of us.” He states that recipients of the DACA program “experienced newfound access to more stable jobs with higher pay, better benefits and less stressful working conditions. These better jobs are good not just for DACA beneficiaries but also for the U.S. economy more generally, as higher wages stimulate economic growth and greater tax revenue. And many DACA beneficiaries are also filling critical labor force needs in growth sectors, such as health care.” Gonzales  concludes, “The United States needs immigration reform to bring immigrants and their families out of the shadows, to recognize their deep community connections and economic contributions, and to build a strong American society.

Meanwhile, the Deseret News calls attention to Utah’s secret to ranking as the youngest state in America: immigrants. Read how immigrants help stimulate the economy, diversify communities, and combat the challenges of an aging workforce. Pam Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, says: “Industries with strong ties to Asian immigrants have been expanding in recent years, such as technology, finance, and higher education. In Salt Lake County, for example, the tract with the largest number and proportion of Asians is the one surrounding the University of Utah campus.”

Betsy Rose Ujvagi, a Toledo, Ohio native writes about her family’s journey from Budapest and argues that immigrants are the backbone to the community. She points to immigrant contributions to the economy, noting: “They are twice as likely to start a small business, as my grandfather did soon after my family came to this country — a fact that I still marvel at. Not only are immigrants in Toledo highly entrepreneurial, they also hold $242 million in spending power and contribute $31 million in state and local taxes, according to a 2015 Partnership for a New American Economy report.”

In case you missed it:

This week, the Partnership for a New American Economy’s State & Local Initiatives team joined business leaders and education advocates at the Massachusetts State House to call for the creation of a state Seal of Biliteracy. As part of the effort, PNAE released a new research brief showing the growing demand for bilingual talent in some of Massachusetts’s key industries. Analyzing online job posting data acquired by Burning Glass Technologies, the research illuminates the need to attract and promote language diversity in the Massachusetts workforce among both foreign- and U.S.-born workers.