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Heritage study sets off immigration bill squabble

A bipartisan Senate immigration bill would cost the government a net $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years to provide benefits for millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally.

By Erica Werner | Updated on May 06, 2013
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, Republican Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., left, and Democrat Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., confer before an Immigration hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg/File.)

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan Senate immigration bill would cost the government a net $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years to provide benefits for millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally, the Heritage Foundation said in a report Monday, setting off a fierce dispute with fellow conservatives who attacked the study as flawed and political.

The Heritage study said immigrants granted new legal status under the bill would eat up more than $9 trillion in health, education, retirement and other benefits over their lifetime, while contributing only around $3 trillion in taxes. Republicans and conservative groups who support the bill quickly countered that the study failed to measure broader economic benefits from an immigration overhaul, including a more robust workforce that would boost the gross domestic product.

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