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    Kansas prepares for clash of wills over future of unauthorised immigrants

    Ed Pilkington in New York
    guardian.co.uk,
    Thursday 2 February 2012 11.03 EST


    Kansas's western portion is dependent on Latino labourers to support its livestock and dairy industries. Photograph: Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/Getty Images


    A coalition of 20 of the most prominent businesses and trade groups in Kansas is seeking to introduce legislation that would help undocumented immigrant workers find jobs with the blessing of the federal government.


    The bill, which is expected to be lodged with the Kansas state assembly over the next few days, is diametrically opposed to the legal clampdowns against undocumented workers that have swept across many states over the past 18 months. Unlike hardline efforts in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and elsewhere to intimidate undocumented Hispanics into leaving the country, the Kansas proposal would provide a safe and above-board route for illegal immigrants to obtain work.


    The coalition is led by groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and various building and manufacturing firms, many of whom are traditionally conservative-leaning. The conviction of these groups is that a ready supply of Hispanic labour is critical to the continuing economic prosperity of the state's 3 million people, of whom around 45,000 are undocumented.


    The western part of Kansas in particular enjoys almost full employment and is dependent on Latino labourers to support its livestock and dairy industries.

    Eric Stafford, senior director of government affairs at the Chamber of Commerce, said that moves to penalise undocumented workers in other states had been economically disastrous.


    "What has happened across America has destroyed communities and industries. Why would we want to put a heavy agricultural state like Kansas through such pain?"


    The coalition's move sets up an almighty clash of wills in Kansas over the future of its immigration policy. In the week of 13 January the state legislature will debate two entirely conflicting approaches.


    The first is the proposal by the business coalition to safeguard the position of undocumented immigrants so that a steady labour supply is secured. The second is an Arizona-style clampdown that would punish any business in Kansas that employs workers who are undocumented and penalise any individual or concern that "harbours" illegal immigrants.


    The hardline option is being put before the assembly by the secretary of state of Kansas, Kris Kobach. A Republican politician and former law professor, Kobach is credited as having been the architect of many of the toughest new immigration laws, including those in Arizona and Alabama and a plethora of other states.


    "If there were fewer jobs illegal aliens could obtain unlawfully and get away with it, fewer illegal aliens would come to Kansas," he told the Topeka Capital-Journal.


    Kobach recently began advising the Republican presidential frontrunner, Mitt Romney, on his immigration policy. Romney has adopted Kobach's concept of "self-deportation", whereby illegal immigrants voluntarily repatriate themselves to escape the harshening legal climate.


    The coalition's counter-proposal is all the more powerful because it is coming not from human rights or Hispanic groups who have consistently sounded the alarm over Arizona-style laws, but from the business community to which the Republican party pays heed.


    Under the bill, the state authorities would endorse a selection of unauthorised immigrant workers who would have to meet stringent criteria. They would have to have lived in Kansas for at least five years, and have a clean criminal record.


    They would also have to work in sectors of the labour market that required additional workers, which would be identified by the Kansas secretary of labour. Workers who met all these conditions would then have their applications for work permits sent to the federal government, bearing the official stamp of approval of Kansas.


    Ahead of the week-long debate on immigration, the business coalition has prepared a factsheet on the economic impact of the tougher laws introduced by other states. It shows that when Georgia passed its legislation, HB 87, last year, it led to an astonishing 50% of its agricultural produce being left to rot in the fields – at a cost to the state of more than $400m.


    Overall, the total losses prompted by the act were $1bn, a figure that would rise to more than $20bn were all of the 325,000 undocumented workers in Georgia to flee the state.


    The coalition also points to research by the right-leaning Cato Institute that shows that about 8 million workers in America are undocumented. Deporting just a third of them would cost the US economy $80bn.


    A new analysis by economists at the University of Alabama has put the cost of its crackdown, passed in June, at almost $11bn. The study estimated that up to 80,000 unauthorised immigrant workers had quit the state that had shed up to 140,000 jobs.


    "We are trying to improve our economy, not destroy it," said Allie Devine, a former Kansas agriculture secretary who is an organiser of the coalition. "The cost of an exodus of Hispanic workers, declining purchases, lost taxes and falling revenue streams for businesses are enormous."

    Kansas prepares for clash of wills over future of its unauthorised immigrants | World news | guardian.co.uk
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