WASHINGTON , Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Senate Stimulus bill currently being considered contains about
-- The current version of the Senate Stimulus bill (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) contains $104 billion in construction spending, including highways, schools, and public housing. -- Government estimates suggest this spending should create about 2 million new construction jobs. -- Consistent with other research, the Center for Immigration Studies has previously estimated that 15 percent of construction workers are illegal immigrants. -- This means that about 300,000 of the construction jobs created by the Senate stimulus could go to illegal aliens (15 percent of 2 million).
Discussion: The
(1) The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates indicate that each
(2) Steven A. Camarota , "Dropping Out: Immigrant Entry and Native Exit From the Labor Market, 2000-2005," Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, March 2006 , p. 19. A 2006 Pew Hispanic Center study, "The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.," estimated that 14 percent of construction workers were illegal immigrants; see page 3 of that report. Both the CIS and Pew studies were based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS). The March 2007 CPS shows that the illegal share of construction workers may have grown to 18 percent, but we use 15 percent in the above discussion to be conservative.
The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research organization that examines the impact of immigration on the United States .
SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies
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