Manhattan Institute Launches Immigration Calculator

The tool helps researchers understand the economic impact of immigration policy 

NEW YORK, NY – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the U.S. federal debt will rise from 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) today to 175% of GDP by 2056 if current policies remain unchanged. Immigration is one policy area with significant implications for the federal debt, and effective policy solutions depend on the quality of data used to inform them.

To measure how different immigration policies would affect the national debt, Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino created an interactive tool that makes it easy to compare data across a thirty-year window, from 2027 to 2056. The tool allows researchers, policymakers, journalists, and everyday Americans to design their own immigration reform agenda with 48 different policy options, or select one of seven pre-designed comprehensive immigration reform proposals, and then visualize the impact of the policy on the national debt, GDP, population, and debt-to-GDP ratio.

Under the Manhattan Institute Reform proposal, Di Martino’s plan would reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio by more than 24% over 30 years without changing the population size. This reform would bring the government one-third of the way to resolving the debt crisis without raising taxes. To learn more about Di Martino’s immigration proposal, view his 2025 report, The Fiscal Impact of Immigration, on which this research is based. 
 
Additionally, you can watch Di Martino testify before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. ET via this livestream. 

Click here to access the immigration calculator.