THE rIGHT IS THE lEFT:

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in written responses to a Democratic senator, said reducing immigration could slow the economy over the longer run by limiting growth in the U.S. labor force.

The comments came in a written response to Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat who asked Powell if he agreed with pro-immigration comments by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari. Kashkari, whose parents came from India and wife is from the Philippines, called immigration "as close to a free lunch as there is" for the American economy, according to a Wall Street Journal opinion column in January.

The Fed chairman's remarks in the August letter to the senator underscore some of the contradictions of the administration's economic policies. While its fiscal measures could stimulate growth and investment, trade and immigration policies could work against the economy. Powell told Cortez Masto that immigration accounts for about one-half of population growth annually, and that it directly affects gains in the labor force and thus economic increases.

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