Our analysis in this paper shows that immigrants generated a fiscal surplus of about $14.5 trillion from 1994 to 2023, that the average immigrant is much less costly than the average US-born American, and that immigrants impose lower costs per person on old-age benefit, education, and public safety programs.

In this special preview for the Winter 2026 issue of Free Society, Cato’s Ian Vásquez details how María Corina Machado exposed the Chavista regime’s massive electoral fraud and unified Venezuela’s opposition. Her movement now represents the country’s best hope for freedom.

To think that Washington can successfully engineer and sustain a new status quo inside Iran through military force epitomizes the fantastical thinking that has guided American Middle East policy for decades.