Thread: Kansas lawmakers scale back audit on illegal immigrants’ e

Kansas lawmakers scale back audit on illegal immigrants’ effect
September 17, 2008

By DAVID KLEPPER

The Star’s Topeka correspondent
TOPEKA | Kansas lawmakers on Wednesday scaled back efforts to learn the true effect of illegal immigration in Kansas.

Lawmakers who have been grappling with the contentious issue had asked state auditors to provide hard numbers on the costs and benefits of illegal immigrants to state government and the economy. But lawmakers who oversee the auditors said Wednesday that there’s not enough data available to draw firm conclusions.

Instead, the committee asked for a compilation of existing reports on illegal immigration to create a primer for lawmakers who expect to wrestle with the issue for years to come.

Earlier this year, lawmakers failed to pass immigration reforms in the face of disagreements on what to do and pressure from powerful industry lobbyists.

Before adjourning in May, lawmakers called on state auditors to conduct a thorough investigation to find out how much illegal immigrants cost the state in law enforcement, social services and health care; how much they contribute in taxes and economic activity, and their impact on jobs and wages.

But auditors said there was so little data on the subject that an audit would be rife with assumptions and best guesses.

Some agencies do not track who receives their services, and it is hard to gauge the percentage of taxes paid by illegal immigrants, let alone how much they help the economy through their labor. Even the number of illegal immigrants in Kansas would be an estimate.

Frustrated, lawmakers said a collection of national studies on immigration’s effects, along with some state agency reports, will have to suffice.

“The info we’re going to get is probably going to be inaccurate, and it’s going to be very difficult to nail down,â€

State's illegal immigrant audit halted
By James Carlson
The Capital-Journal
Published Thursday, September 18, 2008
A chance to bring clarity to illegal immigration's economic impact on the state was stopped Wednesday amid concerns that any information produced in a study would be inaccurate.

The Legislative Post Audit Committee voted instead to conduct a review of available research on the issue and present those findings to lawmakers.

The discarded audit would have looked at three questions: What is the cost of illegal immigration on Kansas? What are the benefits or revenues generated by that population? And what is the effect of illegal immigrants on wages?

But that would have been too difficult to accurately measure, committee members said Wednesday.

"I would say this is a waste of time," said Rep. John Grange, R-El Dorado.

Lawmakers wrangled for months during the 2008 Legislature over how to reform the state's policy on illegal immigration, but business interests, strongly opposed to any changes, helped to end the session without any legislation passed.

House members were successful, however, in attaching an amendment to a bill that directed the Legislative Post Audit Division to look at the economic impact of illegal immigration.

But when it came time to go forward with the 20-week study, the specific statistics weren't available to adequately conduct the investigation, post audit workers said.

"What you'll get is estimates on top of estimates, and it will all be a very broad range," Leo Hafner, deputy post auditor, said Wednesday.

Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, was more blunt.

"We can go through with it, but the information won't be that accurate," he said.

Hafner said the third question of the audit — what is the effect of illegal immigration on the labor force and specifically workers' wages? — already has been studied in other areas. The results, on average, showed that for every 10 percent increase in undocumented workers, wages for the lowest rung of jobs are reduced 3 percent to 4 percent.

Any Kansas-specific study was likely to reach similar conclusions, Hafner said.

But Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, wasn't satisfied. She said the question of how much illegal immigration costs the state is still valid, and she pointed to the problem of drugs flowing into Kansas from Mexico.

"What about the cost of law enforcement?" she asked.

Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said the issue is still on the mind of Kansans, and he wanted to ask for information about depressed wages, as was proposed in the audit, from the Kansas Department of Labor and the state's labor unions.

"Any debate from either side is always well served if we have all the facts," Hensley said.

Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, pointed to the recent complicated audit completed on the effects of the state's economic development incentives offered to businesses.

"Just because it's tough doesn't mean we should avoid it," he said.

But the majority of members disagreed and voted to halt the study before it began.

Post audit will instead compile research from around the country that looks at the effect of illegal immigration on the economy.

James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com.



http://cjonline.com/stories/091808/kan_333720823.shtml

Kansas lawmakers on Wednesday scaled back efforts to learn the true effect of illegal immigration in Kansas.

What do they say...ignorance is bliss! I guess they cannot be held responsible for a problem if they choose to ignore it!

Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, was more blunt.

"We can go through with it, but the information won't be that accurate," he said.

Really...La Raza seems to have no problem compiling 'accurate' statistics when they are demanding another government handout, exclusively intended for "the race!"