Jim DeMint’s Heritage Foundation claims immigration reform would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion over the lifetime of the undocumented immigrants who would gain legal status under the bill. The new finding is an update of a much-disputed 2007 report from the same group that claimed a $2.6 trillion price tag for similar reforms.
Conservative groups supporting reform have been pushing back against its findings pre-emptively for weeks, highlighting alternative research incorporating estimates of improved economic growth that they say shows a net reduction to the deficit.