In a letter being released Thursday, more than 110 economists urged Hill leadership to enact comprehensive immigration reform, portraying it as a necessity to improve the country’s fiscal outlook…

The effort was spearheaded by the American Action Forum. Signers include the organization’s president, former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin; Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush; former Reagan economist Arthur Laffer; and Edward Prescott, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2004…

The business community and conservative reform proponents have repeatedly touted the economic benefits of overhauling the country’s immigration laws. But opponents of immigration reform have zeroed in on its potential price tag to drum up resistance to the Senate legislation – such as a Heritage Foundation study that argues immigration reform could cost $6.3 trillion of taxpayer funds on entitlements and social programs over several decades.