Stimulus Spin: Unauthorized Immigrants Will Get Construction Jobs

Many immigrants' rights supporters are working hard today to debunk the latest nonsense from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) -- the pseudo-scientific "research" arm of the hate group FAIR. CIS estimated -- and by "estimate," I mean cherry-picked little bits of old data -- to make a case that 300,000 undocumented workers would get jobs under Obama's stimulus plan.

Here's Paco Fabian from America's Voice:

Proving that they can turn any public policy issue into an opportunity to bash immigrants, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and their mass-deportation allies are now attacking the stimulus package on anti-immigrant grounds.  The newest CIS report estimates that the recently-passed economic stimulus package will result in 300,000 construction jobs for undocumented immigrants.   But this junk “research” would not get a passing grade in a high school social studies class.  CIS takes inflated 2005 percentages related to the construction industry, combines them with inflated percentages regarding the 2007 construction industry, and concludes with an inflated outcome that has no credibility whatsoever. 

CIS, of course, issues junk "studies" daily, and unfortunately the legacy media often cite them as serious research. For a more complete take-down of CIS’s claims in this case, see this fact check from the Immigration Policy Center. 

Here's the thing: I don't care, and neither should you. Because the whole argument obscures the larger issue. Regardless of the merits of CIS's "estimate," there is no doubt that if we create a bunch of new jobs -- especially in construction -- unauthorized workers will get some of them. After all, they make up about 4-5 percent of the American workforce. And that's fine, because stimulus spending is not just about creating jobs.