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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Studies weigh costs, benefits of immigration

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

With the U.S. Senate preparing to resume the debate over immigration reform this week, two organizations recently released conflicting assessments on how much immigrants cost -- and benefit -- the country.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy research organization, released a report last month concluding that increasing the number of low-skilled immigrants would "dramatically increase" the fiscal burden on taxpayers.

An analysis of the foundation's report released by the Immigration Policy Center, a research organization that focuses on the contributions that immigrants make, said the Heritage Foundation's study was "deeply flawed."

The question of how much immigrants contribute to or cost the country appears to be at the center of closed-door negotiations among senators and the White House on immigration policy.

One side argues that entrance to the country should be based on the immigrants' skills -- and potential benefits to the nation -- while the other wants to continue with the country's traditional emphasis on giving immigration priority to family members of legal U.S. residents.

Earlier this year, President Bush, who is eager to make immigration reform part of his legacy, assigned Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Commerce Department Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to help broker a deal.

The White House proposed a plan that would legalize some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country -- a plan that many Republicans oppose. In exchange, Bush's proposal would shift the nation's immigration policy from a reliance on family ties to a system that allows immigrants into the country based on their work and educational skills. That skills-based system was proposed to win some Republican votes.

Thus far, the strategy has not worked, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, one of the senators involved in the negotiations, said Thursday in a news conference by phone.

"In essence, their proposal moved too far to the right," Menendez said.

Some Republicans, including Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, quickly took hold of the Heritage Foundation's study to criticize proposals that would legalize illegal immigrants, including the White House proposal.

"The Heritage Foundation report proves what we already know, that illegal immigration is a drain to the American people," Bilbray said in a statement released soon after the study.

According to the report, households headed by low-skilled workers -- people without a high school diploma -- received $22,449 more in government services and benefits than they contributed in taxes in 2004. That includes nearly all government spending, including direct benefits, such as Social Security, and public services, such as food safety inspection and parks.

"At more than $22,000 a year, it's like having the American taxpayers buy everyone who doesn't have a high school diploma a brand new Ford Mustang convertible," Bilbray added.

Over the next 10 years, the total cost of low-skilled households is estimated to grow to $3.8 trillion, according to the report.

"This number would go up significantly if changes in immigration policy lead to substantial increases in the number of low-skill immigrants entering the country," according to the report's authors, Robert Rector, Christine Kim and Shanea Watkins.

The Immigration Policy Center's review said that's the wrong way to look at workers in the country.

The center's review calls the Heritage Foundation report's conclusions simplistic and a "dehumanizing portrayal of all workers, foreign-born and native-born alike, who labor for low wages in physically demanding jobs that are essential to the economic health of the nation."

"Workers are much more than the sum total of their payments to the government," said Ben Johnson, director of the Immigration Policy Center, who co-authored the review of the study.

Moreover, the children whose education is counted as a cost in the report often grow up to earn higher wages than their parents, Johnson said. The report also ignores immigrants' entrepreneurship and their spending power, he said in an interview last week.

Many Republicans cite economic concerns in their opposition to legalizing millions of illegal immigrants. They say that under the current immigration system, new permanent residents sponsor their extended families, who also are often lower-skilled workers.

Sen. Menendez, a Democrat, said a point system that would give immigrants priority for admission to the country is being discussed in closed negotiations. The point system, similar to those used in Canada, Britain and Australia, would give priority to immigrants based on their education, work experience and language skills, he said.

But there is little consensus on what those priorities should be, Menendez said.

After two months of negotiations, time is running out for an immigration reform bill, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He said Friday that unless there is an agreement, he will introduce last year's Senate immigration reform bill on Wednesday.

That Senate bill, which did not include a point-based system, passed last year by a vote of 62-36, with 23 Republicans voting in favor. It included border security measures along with a guest-worker program and legalization provisions.

"Many of us had misgivings about it, myself included," Reid said in a statement Friday. "But it is a solid and comprehensive package that can serve as a good start to this year's debate."

Pro-immigrant organizations, who support providing a legalization program, said they are worried about the changes being discussed in secret, including the shift to a points-based immigration system.

"That's a huge change that really hasn't been discussed in the light of day," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights organization. "We are very, very concerned about what's being put on the table."

Read the Heritage Foundations' report at www.heritage.org.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05 ... _12_07.txt