Legalizing most of the estimated 12 million undocumented residents of the U.S. would bolster the current economic downturn, raise wages for native-born employees and neutralize the increasing costs of immigration enforcement, according to a report released Monday by the think tank Immigration Policy Center, based in Washington, D.C.

During a Monday telephonic panel discussion, center director Angela Kelley said reforming current federal immigration policy was a near-term option for federal legislators to raise revenues.

"We would suggest that immigration is low-hanging fruit for Congress that they can pluck as they consider steps for economic recovery," Kelley said.

Where these new revenues would come from is outlined in the report issued Monday by Kelley's group, titled "The Economics of Immigration Reform: What Legalizing Undocumented Immigrants Would Mean for the U.S. Economy."

The report, which Kelley described as a "synthesis of government and academic data," contends that immigration reform policy that integrates a large-scale legalization process would generate revenue by putting millions of currently undocumented workers on tax rolls for federal, state and local withholdings, and cultivate spending and investment by removing the hindrance of legal presence worries experienced by those who reside in the U.S. illegally.

Panel member Dan Siciliano, executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business at Stanford Law School, said legalization would bring members of the immigrant community into the same economic realm as legal residents and make them better contributors to growth.

"We want to remove as much uncertainty as possible," Siciliano said. "Consumers who are a part of the 'above-ground' economy are better consumers … spending more and growing our economy."

Kelley said a successful legalization program would have to include requirements for the payment of taxes (including back-taxes), learning English, a record clear of serious legal convictions and proof of current or recent employment.

Kelley also noted that legalization would benefit all American workers by eliminating the option used by disreputable employers to undercut wages by exploiting undocumented labor.

The report cites net revenue tax gains in the range of $48 billion to $66 billion over nine years and highlights that while U.S Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement budgets have ballooned in recent years, it hasn't contributed to stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants, which the report says has tripled from 3.5 million in 1990 to the current 12 million residing the country.