Trump Administration Suppresses Report That Found Refugees Benefit America

By Katherine Krueger  |  September 19, 2017 | 12:14pm
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An internal government study was rejected by the Trump administration after it found that refugees to America—whose numbers the White House is trying to slash—bring calculable value to the country’s economy, sources told The New York Times.

The draft report, which was leaked to the Times, found that refugees “contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of government” between 2005 and 2014 in the form of taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. In stark contrast to the racist belief espoused by some on the conservative right that refugees are a drain on our fiscal resources, the report also concluded that refugees contribute far more in taxes than they consume from public assistance and fill jobs that other Americans are unwilling to take.

“Overall, this report estimated that the net fiscal impact of refugees was positive over the 10-year period, at $63 billion,” the report, which was never publicly released, concluded.

Emails provided to the newspaper show that Trump aide Stephen Miller, who is helping keep the white nationalist, virulently anti-immigrant flame alive in the White House after Steve Bannon’s departure, personally intervened in talks about the refugee cap, asking that the cost, rather than any fiscal benefit, of people driven from their war-torn countries be taken into account. The deadline for the administration for its annual cap on refugee admissions is October 1. The Department of Homeland Security last proposed capping the number of refugees at 40,000 last week, according to the Times, which would the lowest level in more than 30 years.

WHAT ELSE?

WHAT’S NEXT:

  • Trump is addressing the United Nations General Assembly this morning at 10:30 AM ET, per Mike Allen of Axios AM and veteran White House correspondent Mark Knoller, of CBS News. Trump, for his part, tweeted that the talk is at 10 a.m. Who knows!!!

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