Disinformation, Misinformation, No Information ...Arkansas is a mess:

Lawmakers hear of costs, benefits of immigration
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/200 ... 43385.html
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - State lawmakers conducting an interim study on illegal immigration heard testimony Tuesday about the cost to state agencies to provide services to undocumented immigrants, as well as the positive effects immigration in general has had on Arkansas' economy.

Also Tuesday, Col. Winford Phillips, the state police director, told lawmakers he sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week to inquire about sending state troopers to the agency's training course on immigration enforcement.

A 2005 state law authorizes state police to receive the federal training and make immigration arrests, but to date no troopers have received the training.

The Arkansas State Police currently lacks the manpower to enforce immigration laws, Phillips said. Hiring and training additional troopers would cost about $118,000 per person, he said.

Addressing a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on state agencies and governmental affairs, legislative researcher Kristen Sharp said state agencies provided information showing services to legal immigrants cost the state an estimated $77 million a year illegal immigrants cost the state an estimated $81 million a year.

In addition, immigrants send about $410 million out of the state each year, Sharp said.

The committees are gathering information with an eye toward proposing legislation to address illegal immigration in Arkansas in the 2009 legislative session.

"The reason we're doing this study now is largely, in part, because of the laws that have been passed in neighboring states that have an impact on illegal immigration in those areas, and our fear that Arkansas could become a safe haven for illegal immigrants in the fact that we've not responded accordingly," said Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren.

Deputy State Health Officer Dr. Joe Bates testified that of the 945,000 people the state Health Department served in 2006, about 32,700, or 3.5 percent, may have been undocumented Hispanics, based on statewide population statistics.

Bates said the state would save about $199,000 a year if the Health Department did not provide services to undocumented immigrants, but the extra office hours required to check people's documentation could cost the state $1.3 million, for a net loss of $1.1 million.

"What gives the state authority to spend one tax dollar on people that are breaking the law of the land?" Green asked.

Jodiane Tritt, director of community support for the state Health Department, could not cite a statute in answer to Green's question, but she said treating undocumented immigrants for health problems can save money in the long run.

"If you walk in the door and have a communicable disease, it's much less expensive to state dollars if we treat that person for the communicable disease early, rather than the communicable disease spreading ..." she said.

Dawn Zekis, senior policy analyst for the Department of Human Services, testified that DHS provided services to 771,600 people, of whom an estimated 3,500, or 0.5 percent, were undocumented immigrants.

About $7.4 million in federal money and $1.8 million in state money paid for the services, out of DHS' combined state and federal budget of $3.7 billion, Zekis said.

Dennis Donahue a union carpenter, said some contractors hire undocumented immigrants and pay them "under the table" in cash, depriving the state of tax money and giving themselves an unfair advantage over law-abiding contractors.

Kenny Hall, executive vice president of the state Chamber of Commerce, cited a Rockefeller Foundation study that estimated immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, have an annual spending impact of $2.9 billion on Arkansas, with that spending concentrated in Benton, Washington, Sebastian and Pulaski counties.

The study also estimated that without immigrant labor, manufacturers in Arkansas would see their production drop by $1.4 billion a year unless they spent $95 million more in wages to replace immigrants with native-born workers.

Rodney Baker, director of governmental affairs for the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said that if the immigrant labor force were cut in half through new immigration measures, employers would have to raise farm wages from the current average of about $9.50 an hour to between $11 and $14.50 an hour, which is "not sustainable."

Rep. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, said he understands the state has received some economic benefits, but "we just don't want to say to the people, as long as the state of Arkansas is profiting, it's OK to break the law."

"And we're not saying that," Baker said. "We would say that as we go about fixing this problem, we don't want to break the state of Arkansas either."