WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s moves on immigration would expand the labor force and increase worker productivity, according to a White House report Friday that estimates average wages would rise over a 10-year period.
The president’s critics and even some labor allies dispute that claim.
Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers forecasts that as a result of his administrative actions, the gross domestic product would grow by $90 billion, or 0.4 percent, over 10 years, and wages would rise by 0.3 percent by 2024.
Obama’s actions could spare nearly 5 million immigrants illegally in the U.S. from deportation and make them eligible for work permits.
The report aims to counter critics such as Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who says Obama’s moves would lower wages and cost American workers’ jobs. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also says the president’s effort to provide access to temporary visas could suppress wages in the high-tech sector.