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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Auditor’s report details impact of illegal immigrants in the state

By ANDREW UJIFUSA
Assitant Managing Editor


With the release of his report, the Impact of Illegal Immigration on Mississippi, State Auditor Phil Bryant says he is just trying to get in front of a growing problem and provide important numbers on the financial impact of illegal immigrants in various areas. This impact, according to the report, is a $25 million loss for Mississippi.

“As state auditor, the first thing that I always look at is, what are the costs?” said Bryant in an interview at his office. “Because you really can’t deal with any issue or any program, unless you know what the costs are.”

The report states that, assuming that there are 49,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico, the midpoint figure from various estimates. Mississippi has one of the fastest-growing populations of undocumented workers out of the 50 states in America.

In Madison County, the population of foreign-born residents (both documented and undocumented) grew by 263 percent in the 1990s.

But Bryant’s biggest emphasis, both in the report and the interview, was that Mississippi government has virtually no way of collecting data about the number and habits of illegal immigrants: “What we discovered is that nobody really knows.”

He admitted that the number is probably higher, but that he wanted the number to be relatively conservative because of the delicacy of the issue, and in no way did he believe the report was racist or biased. But despite the difficulty in collecting information and the sensitivity involved, Bryant still wanted to be aggressive.

“The worst thing we can do is say, ‘Well, it may seem as if we’re being harsh towards immigrants, so we don’t want to do anything,’ ” said Bryant.

Using this population of 49,000, the report states that illegal immigrants are costing the state just over $25 million per year. This estimate includes tax contributions, government expenditures in healthcare, education and public safety, and monetary remittances sent to countries of origin. According to the report, the state health care system is under particular stress, losing an estimated $35 million per year in costs from illegal immigrants.

Along with creating good data collection methods, Bryant said that to cope with the population of illegal immigrants, school teachers should be hired who are fluent in a wider variety of languages. He added that local law enforcement needs to be trained by government agencies, such as the Department for Homeland Security, in dealing with people who don’t speak English.

Sen. Mike Lott, R-Petal, is pleased that Bryant was aggressive in reporting on this issue. He believes that the most important statistic is the 10.3 million per year in illegal immigrant remittances, which Lott believes represents an actual loss to the state economy of $27 to $30 million.

“That’s just money that’s not even being put into our economy,” said Lott. “We’re not just talking about a loss of taxpayer money.”

For Lott, the negative financial and social impact is the reverse of the NAFTA and CAFTA free trade agreements passed by the U.S. Congress. He wants employers of illegal immigrants to be held responsible.

“The American dream is for the worker to be a force for success, and for the employer to make a high profit,” said Lott. “These large corporate employers are willing to do whatever it takes to make that high profit. It’s un-American, because they’re not thinking of the country.”

Even though all the bills attempting to deal with the illegal immigrant situation have died in the legislature, Lott wants to speak to the people of Mississippi about the issue and develop momentum to eventually create new laws that address what he views as a growing problem.

“I will work to make it an issue,” he said. “I hope to go around the state and educate people. I want them to become passionate and pro-active about it.”

Lott’s message to illegal immigrants was blunt: “If you are trespassing in the United States, Mississippi is not the place for you.”

Others do not see the issue in the same way. Bill Chandler, whose career in labor and workers’ rights goes back to Cesar Chavez on California farms in the 1960s, believes that the report is racist, fatally flawed, and only represents political opportunism. Chandler is the director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Association (MIRA).

“This is an attempt to scapegoat Latino immigrants and use [them] for political gain,” said Chandler.

He noted that several statistical sources in the report were drawn from anti-immigrant groups, and wondered why the report repeatedly states that there wasn’t enough time to collect certain information.

“What was his hurry if it wasn’t political?” asked Chandler.

Far from having a negative impact, Chandler pointed to a study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences showing that undocumented workers create a $10 billion gain for America’s economy every year, and that Mississippi is no exception to this kind of positive impact.

He also says that thousands of Latino workers on the Gulf Coast are doing the most dangerous work and being treated with the greatest disregard to their welfare and safety.

“They’re cleaning out filthy and dirty places, and not being provided with protective gear,” said Chandler. “Thousands of them have not been paid. And with every worker we’ve talked to, we have not found a case where a worker has not been cheated out of their wages.”

But Chandler, like Bryant, places the ultimate blame at the feet of the federal government. He says that the history of American immigration laws have been blatantly discriminatory against minorities, whether the immigrant group is Chinese, Japanese or Hispanic. “Every immigration law we’ve passed has had something to do with race. We have a patchwork of immigration laws and quotas,” said Chandler. “We need to replace them with a sensible policy.”