Policy needed to address costs of illegal immigration

By Jaron Halford

Published: Thursday, February 3, 2011

Updated: Thursday, February 3, 2011 00:02

The national illegal immigrant population residing in the United States is currently more than four and a half times the total population of Utah and costs more to national taxpayers than the total value of Utah's 2010 gross domestic product. The illegal immigration problem hits closer to home than most of us care to realize.

For instance, conservative estimates in 2010 put Utah's state and local cost expenditures on illegal immigrants at $453 million, according to an article by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Conversely, estimates put the property, sales and income taxes collected from illegal immigrants in Utah at $31.1 million. There is certainly a massive cost incurred by the Utah taxpayers in regards to supporting illegal immigrants within the state. However, the focus needs to be more on how to transform this problem into an efficient, equitable and legally viable situation.

Current illegal immigrant population estimates in Utah hover around 100,000, or roughly the size of Sandy or West Jordan. The illegal immigrant influx has been a growing trend over the years, but the recent recession did put a damper on the wave of total Hispanic migration to the state. As it stands now, the total Hispanic population of Utah is around 324,000, or 12 percent of the total Utah population. How do these numbers affect Utah's economy and society?

Let's look at the economic implications first. Illegal immigrants represent 4.9 percent of Utah's labor force. This illegal workforce is heavily concentrated in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Both sectors combine to represent 16.7 percent of Utah's GDP and provide 14.7 percent of the total Utah workforce. Illegal immigrants do not dictate Utah's economic well-being—however, they do impact two of its pivotal sectors.

What about the social, or equity side, of the problem? Estimates show that Utah taxpayers paid for 26,922 K-12 students of illegal immigrants in 2010. In doing so, taxpayers spent on average $8,885 per student for a total of $239 million. Utah taxpayers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for DREAM Act (House Bill 144) students as well. Last year, Utah taxpayers also spent a total of $67.6 million on medical costs for illegal immigrants and their children.

The funds spent on illegal immigrants in Utah far surpass the amount of taxes Utah collects from illegal immigrants. Our society certainly gains utility from educating many of these children who call Utah home, but our future objective needs to focus on not only creating future value within the Hispanic community as a whole, but more on ensuring that our future will be liberated from the costs that they impose on Utahns.

A viable solution to the current problems needs to address three main issues. First, regardless of national border leniency, Utah needs to thwart any incentives for being here illegally. Granted, this might not be an efficient measure at first—policies need to focus on ensuring that illegal immigrants are not an untapped resource and a subsequent burden floating around in society. Second, future policies need to be the most cost-effective measures in addressing this situation. Rounding up every illegal immigrant might not be cost-friendly or always appropriate. Future policies need to be constructed in a manner that efficiently and legally fuses illegal immigrants into our community. Thirdly, immigration policies cannot be myopic. Future trends indicate that the United States will be in need of immigrant workers to fill our inevitable labor gap in the short future. A viable solution needs to be robust enough to incorporate all three problem areas.

Bottom line, we are the makers of our future. Do we want to spend $453 million to support illegal immigrants, or do we want to spend $340 million to build a convention center hotel that will create jobs and bring in much-needed revenue to the state? Maybe we don't desire either, or maybe we desire both. Whatever we decide, we must remember that many illegal immigrants call Utah home. However, we must not forget that illegal immigrants impose a huge cost on the state of Utah. Any solution must take both of these issues into account as well.

Jaron Halford,

Bachelor's of Political Science '09

Bachelor's of International Studies '10

Master's Student, Public Policy

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