Washington Free Beacon reporter Elizabeth Harrington appeared Tuesday on Fox Business to discuss new research on how deporting illegal immigrants affects the U.S. economy.
"We pay Americans not to work, and that is one reason that some lower paying jobs, lesser skilled are vacant," host Charles Payne said before asking Harrington her thoughts on immigration.
"Well, the research coming out that is warning that if we deport eight million illegal immigrants, that it's going to cost the economy $5 trillion dollars over a decade," Harrington said. "It's just not true because that research is based on the fact that they assume none of these jobs will be filled."
"We have 94 million people, Americans, out of the labor force, many of which have just simply given up looking for work," Harrington added. "Imagine if the jobs are actually open to Americans who have been searching for years."
Harrington then noted that the newly open jobs would be taken very quickly by the millions of Americans currently out of work.
"The economy actually suffers if we do comprehensive immigration reform" and wages will go down if the U.S. brings in millions of immigrants, she concluded.