Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd of National Association of Manufacturers members this week that America needs a “constant, unrelenting stream” of new immigrants, “not dribbling [but] significant flows,” in order to boost the economy.

Biden framed his push for immigration reform in terms of “badly” needed economic resurgence. The Hill reports:

“We need it badly from a purely – purely economic point of view,” Biden said during remarks to the National Association of Manufacturers. [...]

“We have the most resilient economy in the world,” Biden told hundreds of people gathered at the business group’s annual conference. “We’re better positioned than any country in the world to lead the world in the 21st Century.”

Biden said a key to the country’s solid economic footing is the “the ‘constant, unrelenting stream’ of immigrants that has come to the United States for generations.

“Not dribbling,” Biden explained. “Significant flows.”

During the talk, and via Twitter afterward, Biden pushed the White House's amnesty-heavy immigration reform, which he said would grow the economy by over 5% over the next decade. Via The Washington Times:

Mr. Biden predicted that opening the doors to the White House’s vision of immigration reform, which is heavy on the amnesty, would allow the nation’s gross domestic product numbers to hike by 5.4 percent, or $1.4 trillion, over the next two decades, Newsmax reported. Simultaneously, he predicted that the deficit would drop by $850 billion.

“That’s real powerful economic reform,” Mr. Biden said.

Biden’s comments come in the midst of a “humanitarian crisis” caused by an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrant minors that has maxed out detention facilities, forcing the administration to ask for $2 billion for housing accommodations. Officials predict that as many as 80,000 minors will have crossed the border illegally in the FY 2014.