Soaring Rate of Immigrant Parents Imperils Overhaul Boon
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Robert Liang and his wife, Alice, are living arguments for backers of an immigration-law revision: Though undocumented, they’re hardworking small-business owners who don’t want government help. The immigrants from Taiwan also embody an argument for its opponents: They’re older than 50.
Some 11 million undocumented workers would pay taxes to support government health and retirement programs if a rapidly aging nation gives them citizenship, advocates say. Yet a study by Princeton University researchers suggests a hidden cost. The newest Americans from Mexico, it found, are sponsoring older family members at a rate 16 times greater than such households did when the U.S. last rewrote immigration laws in 1986.