Leadership Quote by Dave Reichert

“Immigration is not just compatible with but is a necessary component of economic growth” is politician-speak with a deliberate edge: it doesn’t merely defend immigrants from the usual charge of being an economic burden, it flips the burden of proof onto restrictionists. “Compatible” is the minimalist, technocratic concession skeptics might tolerate; “necessary” is the escalation, a word chosen to make immigration sound less like a moral debate and more like an input in a production function.

Reichert’s intent reads as coalition-building. He’s not asking voters to embrace cultural change; he’s asking them to accept a practical premise: labor markets tighten, populations age, innovation clusters form, and the economy needs people. It’s a pro-growth frame aimed at business interests, suburban pragmatists, and anyone who wants GDP without wading into identity politics. The subtext is: you can dislike the chaos of the system and still admit the system’s output depends on newcomers.

The phrasing also signals a particular political context: post-1990s globalization and the long era when “economic growth” became the bipartisan shibboleth that could paper over deeper disagreements. By centering growth rather than rights, Reichert implicitly accepts that immigration will be judged by its utility. That’s strategic, but it’s also a tell. Immigrants are positioned as economic infrastructure, not neighbors. The line works because it speaks in the language lawmakers trust most: inevitability dressed up as economics, controversy reframed as arithmetic.