Illegals Can Aid Economy, Panel Says

Foreign workers who enter the country illegally are easily absorbed into the labor force and can sometimes make a positive contribution to the U.S. economy, President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers told Congress in a report today.

“Illegal aliens may find it possible to evade some taxes, but they use fewer services (especially Social Security benefits) than do other groups,” the report said.

The President’s top economic advisers said that while they weren’t condoning illegal immigration, they could find no evidence that the employment of illegal aliens displaced native-born workers from jobs.

The report on aliens was one of seven separate economic studies accompanying Reagan’s annual economic message, which the President dispatched to the Hill today with a signing ceremony in his office.

Controversial Section

The chapter on immigration became controversial even before it was released with published reports saying that the President’s economic advisers had been forced to delete comments saying that proposals to punish employers of illegal aliens would have adverse effects on the economy.

Beryl Sprinkel, chairman of the council, briefing reporters at the White House, denied that there had been pressure to remove parts of the report on the economic consequences of employer sanctions.

Sprinkel said he made the decision to delete those sections from a draft report because he did not believe he had the expertise to talk about enforcement activities.

“I did it before anyone else brought it up,” he said. “It in no way involved my changing my ideas to fit the Administration.”

Competition Assisted

The report stated that “although many aliens work on farms illegally, the availability of such workers may enable U.S. production of certain fruit and vegetable crops to remain competitive with that of other nations.”

Restricting the supply of alien farm labor “would increase the costs of farm production,” the advisers concluded.

Sprinkel said the report was initiated because “the President agreed it would be important to examine the economics of immigration.”

He also told reporters that the study in no way endorses the practice.

“The economic gains provided by international migration do not justify the presence or employment of aliens in the United States on an illegal basis,” the report concluded.

But on the whole, the study said, migrants, both legal and illegal, “appear to pay their own way from a public finance standpoint.”

“A study of illegal migrants in Texas found that the vast majority made substantial payments for federal income and Social Security taxes as well as sales and excise taxes,” the report said.

Illegal aliens use few government social or welfare services, the report said. “Illegal aliens appear to use health services more frequently than other services, but most appear to pay for these services,” it added.