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Immigration issue swirls anew at summit
Texas comptroller's report cites contributions and costs; business lobby groups advocate reforms.
By Juan Castillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, December 08, 2006

In an issue known for its complexities, one question seems to cut to the heart of the debate over immigration reform: Are illegal immigrants a burden or a benefit for the economy?

As elected officials and Texas employers debated that point Thursday at an immigration reform summit organized by business lobby groups, a new state comptroller's report provided fodder for both advocates and opponents of relaxing immigration law.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's report said undocumented immigrants added $17.7 billion to the gross state product in 2005 and produced $1.58 billion in state revenues. They received $1.16 billionin state services.

However, local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state, the report said.

The report, "Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy," estimated that undocumented immigrants paidan additional $513 million in local taxes in 2005.

The financial impact of illegal immigration is highly disputed, with each side citing reports that vary widely.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports toughening border security and reducing immigration, estimates that illegal immigration costs Texas $3.7 billion a year. Strayhorn said her estimates differ from the federation's for several reasons, including that she did not count the cost of educating U.S.-born children of undocumented parents.

Her report and the immigration summit, the latter timed to the upcoming start of the 2007 legislative session, were the latest signs of growing statewide interest in illegal immigration and immigration laws, once addressed almost exclusively on a federal stage.

That was before the nation's illegal immigrant population grew to an estimated 12 million people — 1.4 million in Texas — and advocates on each side began expressing growing disgust with congressional inaction.

With the start of the new legislative session still weeks away, legislators have already filed a dozen bills that would crack down on illegal immigration.

Until this year, Texas employers were largely silent in the public immigration debate, even drawing criticism from immigrant rights groups for not being more vocal partners in calls for new laws creating more avenues for immigrants to enter the country legally.

"Our board felt it was important and in the interests of Texas and employers to adopt a position supporting comprehensive immigration reform," said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, one of the organizers of Thursday's Texas Immigration Reform Summit.

Hammond said that immigrants are essential for expanding the Texas economy and that some employers face labor shortages without them, despite efforts to fill jobs with U.S.-born workers.

The business association, he said, supports increasing legal immigration avenues, giving undocumented workers who are here an opportunity to gain legal status and/or citizenship, and a system that employers can rely on to check the status of job applicants.

Hammond said the organization thinks state legislators shouldn't deal with immigration reform "unless and until the Congress deals with it."

Thursday's summit at the Hilton Austin Hotel brought together nationally known speakers, industry representatives and elected officials, who mined familiar immigration themes before an audience of about 250 people.

One of the most anticipated panels featured a debate between state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, and Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston.

Berman is the author of a controversial measure, House Bill 28, that challenges birthright citizenship by denying U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants state services except health care and education, the latter protected by federal law.

Berman, citing a Lone Star Foundation report, said illegal immigration costs the state a net $3.5 billion per year for health care and education. "We're being taken advantage of," he said.

Berman said he would trust the information provided by the foundation, a conservative think tank that touts "Texas values of family, freedom, free enterprise, and the Constitution," over Strayhorn's.

Critics, including constitutional experts, have derided House Bill 28 as unconstitutional, arguing that birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Amendment. Berman says it was never intended to apply to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

"The question I'm raising is a legitimate one,"

Berman said, adding that he hopes his measure, if it passes, becomes a test case for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Noriega, who wrote a 2001 law, the first in the country, allowing some undocumented immigrants in Texas to pay in-state college tuition, challenged contentions that immigrants take advantage of social services.

"We have an underground society," Noriega said. "One of the myths is that people come out and try to get benefits. People in my district don't even give their phone number to Radio Shack when they make a purchase, for fear that any additional information will bring undue attention to their status."

Earlier, Dan Stein with the Federation for American Immigration Reform said some employers are interested in only the bottom line.

"There's no such thing as cheap labor," Stein said. "It's cheap employers who aren't willing to pay the money the domestic market requires to get the job done. It's a domino effect. When one company brings in illegal workers, everybody feels constrained to do the same thing."

Immigration reform also dominated business Wednesday at a meeting of the Texas Border Coalition, a group of county and city public officials.

Gov. Rick Perry, who spoke to the group, said he disagrees with Berman's bill and any others that create divisions.

Perry said immigrants benefit the state's economy, and he called for a guest worker program to bring them out of the shadows.