Heritage Foundation’s Dishonest Anti-Immigrant Report

From Think Progress:

As lawmakers prepare to unveil a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate, the Heritage Foundation is readying a flawed analysis to counter the momentum for a path to citizenship. The report will reprise Heritage senior fellow Robert Rector’s arguments from 2007 that reform will cost taxpayers at least $2.6 trillion by the time immigrants reach retirement age due to Social Security and Medicare benefits.

But other conservative groups and top Republican senators are pushing back on the flawed analysis. Americans for Tax Reform and Cato Institute have already distanced themselves from Heritage’s position. They describe Rector’s 2007 analysis as “fatally” and “severely flawed” and assure that it does not speak for the conservative movement.

CATO rejected Heritage’s methodology in a blog post last week. CATO’s Alex Nowrasteh details 11 factors that Heritage does not consider: “That 2007 report’s flawed methodology produced a grossly exaggerated cost to federal taxpayers of legalizing unauthorized immigrants while undercounting or discounting their positive tax and economic contributions – greatly affecting the 2007 immigration reform debate.” Cato notes that the long path to citizenship also mostly excludes immigrants from access to Medicaid and social services.

Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform also piled on to the criticism. According to Roll Call, ATR wrote to congressional offices on Tuesday, “Unfortunately, Rector’s study was severely flawed in its methodology, and thus in its findings.” They note, “Robert Rector’s work does not speak for the conservative movement; in fact, it does not even speak for the Heritage Foundation.” Read more…

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