U.S. Economy Benefited from "Open-ish Borders" Policy, More Immigration Needed for Fiscal Stability, Analyst Argues

Washington D.C. – A recent analysis by Jordan Weissmann, featured in "The Argument," posits that the Biden administration's "open-ish borders" approach has yielded significant economic benefits for the United States. Weissmann asserts that increased immigration will be crucial in the coming years to address the nation's economic and fiscal challenges.

"My first piece at The Argument: Biden’s experiment with open-ish borders actually worked out pretty well economically. The bottom line is we’re going to need a lot more immigration in the coming years to fix our economic and fiscal problems," Weissmann stated in a tweet.

The article from "The Argument" elaborates that the U.S. economy has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to absorb millions of new individuals, a development that has boosted payrolls and economic growth. This influx of workers has also potentially helped to control consumer prices, defying earlier economic predictions that strong job growth would fuel inflation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected that increased immigration could reduce the national deficit by nearly $900 billion over the next decade.

Weissmann's analysis directly challenges the "MAGA myth" that immigrants displace native-born workers. He references mainstream economists, including Harvard’s Jason Furman, who explain that the perceived decline in native-born employment was largely due to an aging population and retirements, not job displacement by immigrants. In fact, the employment rate for native-born Americans aged 25-54 reached a 16-year high, filling gaps left by an aging workforce.

The economic imperative for more immigration stems from the U.S.'s aging demographics and slowing population growth. With birth rates falling and the workforce aging, sustained economic growth and the solvency of social programs like Medicare and Social Security depend on a growing labor force. Without continued immigration, the CBO forecasts a significant slowdown in labor force growth by 2030, potentially hindering GDP expansion.

The argument concludes that while the political discourse around immigration remains contentious, the macroeconomic reality suggests that continued immigration is not merely a social value but an "absolute economic imperative" for the United States to avoid a "vicious spiral of low GDP growth and rising debt."