No enterprise in the United States—or any market economy—could survive if it only counted the costs of doing business and ignored the benefits side of the ledger. But that is exactly how some Trump administration officials are insisting on evaluating the refugee resettlement program, according to a report in The New York Times this week.

The economic self-sufficiency that is the core goal of the U.S. refugee resettlement program is thus being met, as both the MPI and HHS reports attest. Refugees are not the fiscal burden that some in the White House suggest.

White House officials opposed to refugee resettlement rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to the Times, because it does not support their argument that resettlement is an unreasonable fiscal burden. Indeed, the 55-page draft shows the opposite, finding that refugees brought in $63 billion more revenue to federal, state, and local governments than they cost over the 2005-14 period surveyed. In place of this analysis, HHS submitted to the White House a three-page document that looked only at HHS expenditures on refugees (such as Medicaid), ignoring taxes paid by refugees and other receipts.

Read the source article at Migration Policy Institute