MYTH: "Immigrants are uneducated, low-skilled and building a permanent underclass"

In 2000, roughly 12.5 million legal immigrants in the United States had more than a high school education, and accounted for half of all immigrants living in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

Immigrants have had a disproportionate role in innovation and technology and have fueled growth of new businesses. Half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants--including Yahoo, eBay and Google. According to the U.S. Census and analysis by the Immigration Policy Center, "In 2002, 1.6 million Hispanic-owned firms provided jobs to 1.5 million employees, had receipts of $222 billion, and generated payroll of $36.7 billion. The same year, 1.1 million Asian-owned firms provided jobs to 2.1 million employees, had receipts of $326.4 billion, and generated payroll of $56 billion."