Thread: Illegal residents cost state $175M

Posted on Fri, Dec. 09, 2005



KRT photo
Border Patrol Agent Daniel Salyers checks out a known illegal crossing point in a North Dakota farm field along the border with Canada.


Illegal residents cost state $175M

Study comes as Pawlenty prepares to propose changes

BY PATRICK SWEENEY

Pioneer Press


About 80,000 illegal immigrants live in Minnesota, and the state services they and their children use cost taxpayers more than $175 million a year, a new study concludes.

The study was ordered by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who plans to propose law changes affecting illegal immigrants during the coming legislative session, said Brian McClung, a spokesman for the governor.

"We need to remember that we are a nation of immigrants, and we should support immigration that is legal and orderly," Pawlenty said in a statement announcing the release of the report Thursday. "Unfortunately, the current system is neither and needs to be reformed."

The report, which was written by the Office of Strategic Planning & Results Management in the state Department of Administration, focused only on the cost to the state of illegal immigrants. Some studies have concluded that the benefit to the national economy of work by noncitizens exceeds the cost of public services they consume.

"Obviously, there is a school of thought that there is an economic advantage to having these folks in our workforce," said Administration Commissioner Dana Badgerow. "We just didn't look at that side of it."

Badgerow said Pawlenty did not request analysis of the economic benefit contributed by illegal immigrants.

State Sen. Sandy Pappas, a St. Paul Democrat who clashed with Pawlenty this summer over her proposal to offer in-state tuition rates to foreign-born children of illegal immigrants who graduate from Minnesota high schools, said she welcomed a public debate on national immigration policy and the contributions and costs of immigrants in Minnesota.

"People come to this country seeking a better life and a better future for their children, and we need to get that out in the open," said Pappas, who had not yet read the report. "It's why my Finnish grandparents came, and why my Greek grandparents came."

McClung refused to speculate about what law changes Pawlenty will propose. On Nov. 29 and on Wednesday, Pawlenty conducted closed-door "listening sessions" with small groups of community leaders in Worthington and Rochester.

Rep. Doug Magnus, R-Slayton, who attended the Worthington session last week, said he believes Pawlenty wants to make it easier for law enforcement officers to crack down on the widespread use of false identity papers by some noncitizens.

Magnus said he also believes Pawlenty supports some form of President Bush's so-called "guest worker" program that would allow nonresidents to enter the United States to work for a specified period and then require them to return home.

McClung said he did not know Pawlenty's position on the guest-worker proposal.

During his 2002 campaign for governor, Pawlenty promised to require that state driver's licenses issued to foreign visitors to Minnesota include their visa expiration dates. When lawmakers did not pass that legislation, Pawlenty imposed the mandate administratively. This year, he threatened to veto a higher education funding bill if it included the provision for in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants, Pappas said.

The new report by the Administration Department is a compilation of other research about the size and scope of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. and in Minnesota. It estimates the costs â€â€

It is doubtful that employers could not obtain employees from teenagers, the retired and in country migrants.

As it is they should include the cost of providing state benefits to the underpaid, underemployed and unemployed citizens and legals immigrants. The state would have a higher level of economic efficiency by obtaining less competition for them than by tolerating illegal aliens.

"People come to this country seeking a better life and a better future for their children, and we need to get that out in the open," said Pappas

I've never understood how those "seeking a better life" quotes convey any information or justification for anything. It's why everybody and every creature does most anything. We haven't been assuming that they are coming for a "worser" life and the lady's statement is a great revelation that nobody thought about before. Bank robbers rob banks for a better life. Shoplifters shoplift for a better life. Embezzlers embezzle for a better life. We have determined that allowing those activities are not good for the whole just as we have determined that open do-it-yourself immigration policy is not good for the whole. So, why doesn't "seeking a better" life justify everything, including complete anarchy, if it justifies one thing?

Here is the "Impact of Illegal Immigration on Minnesota" report that was just issued:

http://www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/ ... f%2025.pdf