Thread: Kan. lawmakers order analysis of immigration costs

Posted on Mon, Jul. 07, 2008e-mail print RSS reprint

Kan. lawmakers order analysis of immigration costs
The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. - Legislators failed this year to pass a bill dealing with the growing problem of illegal immigration in the state, but they will try again next year.

When they do, they will be armed with an analysis by the Legislative Division of Post Audit, which legislators hope will help them draft a bill that can make it to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

This year, efforts to deal illegal immigrants started out with strong get-tough plans in the House and Senate, but both chambers watered down the measure after objections by the business sector.

A compromise bill died in a negotiating committee, largely because House Democrats refused to back off demands to include criminal penalties for businesses that illegally treat any worker as an independent subcontractor.

Rep. Nile Dillmore added language to the budget requiring the audit that will focus on the costs of illegal immigration to the state. The report is expected to be completed during the next legislative session that starts in January.

"Before we decide on fiscal policies that affect economy, shouldn't we have some idea on what we are doing and what the outcomes might be if we make those changes?" the Wichita Democrat told the Lawrence Journal-World.

The audit will try to determine the costs to the state for benefits and services provided to illegal immigrants, the estimated tax revenues from illegal immigrants, and whether the taxes they pay offset the costs of benefits provided. It also will study the effect that illegal immigration has on labor costs and the job market in Kansas.

The costs already known to the state include the $175,000 the attorney general's office says it has paid to defend a law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition if they have lived in Kansas for three years, graduated from a high school in the state and seek or promise to seek legal status.

Repeated efforts by legislators to repeal the 2004 law have failed. The state Board of Regents says 243 illegal immigrants are receiving in-state tuition.

Also failing was a federal court challenge by a group of parents and non-Kansas residents represented by Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law school professor and Kansas Republican Party chairman.

A U.S. District Court judge in Topeka threw out the lawsuit, saying the plaintiffs had no standing because they couldn't show how they would be harmed. If the law was struck down, they still would have to pay the higher tuition. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal agreed, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Kobach said he's considering his next move.

Jonathan Blazer, a public benefits policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said contrary to popular opinion, many studies have shown that illegal immigrants have a positive effect on the economy. He said illegal immigrants workers pay more in taxes into the economy than they derive in benefits.

"There is still this myth that is fueling this debate that immigrants are a drain as opposed to an asset," Blazer said.

Some studies, he said, show that they may depress wages in certain labor markets. But, he said, the solution is to provide them a way to attain citizenship so that they are not exploited by unscrupulous employers.

He said it was important for states to tread cautiously when trying to enact immigration laws.

In Oklahoma, for example, an anti-illegal immigration law that took effect last year will cause $1.8 billion in economic losses, according to a study done by the Oklahoma Bankers Association. The losses will be incurred because thousands of workers will leave the state, the study said.

http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/456697.html

Forget the illegal alien Social Security situation. Every job occupied by an illegal alien should probably have gone to a citizen or a legal immigrant.

Jonathan Blazer, a public benefits policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said contrary to popular opinion, many studies have shown that illegal immigrants have a positive effect on the economy. He said illegal immigrants workers pay more in taxes into the economy than they derive in benefits.

"There is still this myth that is fueling this debate that immigrants are a drain as opposed to an asset," Blazer said.

HAHAHAHA oh yeah, you don't have an agenda, ain't that right John? Can you prove any of it John?

It's no myth that IA's take more than they put in.

An illegal alien doing a "job Americans won't do" pays about $17k (pick a number). Got kids? What taxes do they pay on that salary? ($17k with a family- don't pay income tax). Is the salary paid under the table (no taxes taken out). SHOW ME THE TAXES PAID vs WELFARE TAKEN.

$17k does not pay for school taxes or ER visits OR prenatal care.

It would be a great idea to have a boiler plate document, available to any state, documenting, and demonstrating, all of of the probable costs, attributable to illegal immigrants, that a state would, in all probability, experience. Putting something like this together, for a knowledgeable person, wouldn't require that great of an effort, and it could be continually refined, and then made available to any, and all states, as any state considering any immigration issue, is going to be asking these same questions. It would be a waste if each state had to go through these same steps (learning process), from scratch, when there are those of us, much closer to the issue. who have a much better understanding of the costs, and pitfalls, of illegal immigrants.

I'm fairly certain that it would be very easy to assemble a task force of interested individuals who would be more than willing to participate in this effort. Much of this work has already been done; it's just a matter of pulling it all together.