EL PASO TIMES

December 8, 2006

Report: Immigrants aid economy, but strain local services

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Undocumented immigrants contribute billions to the Texas economy and produce more in state revenues than they use in state services, but they are a drain on local governments, according to a report the Texas comptroller released Thursday.

In Texas, an estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants added $17.7 billion to the state's economy in 2005, the report from Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said. The undocumented immigrants paid about $1.58 billion in state taxes while using $1.16 billion in state public services, according to the report.

Though undocumented immigrants pay more to the state than they use in services such as education, health care and prison space, the report shows, the undocumented immigrants cost cities and counties $920 million.

"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," Strayhorn said.

The report came on the day Texas business leaders met in Austin to urge state lawmakers to leave immigration-related legislation to Congress.

Texas employers are worried that state legislators scheduled to meet in January might adopt punitive measures that harm employers and the state economy.

Bill Hammond, executive director of the Texas Association of Business, said Strayhorn's report proves the state needs a growing work force to maintain its prosperity.

"Any immigration solution that ignores the needs of our economy will only delay reform and promote further illegal immigration, not end it," he said.

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, which does research on policy issues such as crime, poverty and immigration, told business leaders that on a national level undocumented immigrants add more to the economy than they take and are vital to continued economic vitality.

"Sure, there are costs to immigration É ," Jacoby said. "To focus on costs and not see benefits is really shortsighted"

Undocumented workers, she said, take jobs Americans do not want and fill a void in the work force caused by an aging population and falling reproduction rates in the United States.

Instead of attempting to squelch immigration, Jacoby argued, Congress should tie immigration quotas to economic needs and enforce workplace laws that prohibit undocumented workers.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the U.S. has become a "flophouse" for the cheap and undocumented workers for which employers seemingly have an insatiable desire.

Undocumented immigrants, he said, increase crime rates, take American jobs and drain taxpayers' wallets.

Congress needs to implement a "timeout" and clamp down on all immigration, he said.

Proposed guest-worker programs would fail, Stein said, because the U.S. Constitution provides birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. That, he said, is an incentive for migrants to continue having children and staying in the United States regardless of their legal status.

"Until the country has put into place a system to make people leave when it's time to go home, we would oppose any expansion," he said.

Stein lauded a Texas bill filed by state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, that aims to challenge birthright citizenship and would deny state services to children of undocumented immigrants.

Berman rejected Strayhorn's report indicating that undocumented immigrants contribute to the state more than they take in services. He cited a report in September by the conservative Lone Star Foundation that indicated Texas loses $3 billion in services to undocumented immigrants.

"We're being taken advantage of in this area," Berman told the business leaders.

Berman said he did not want to hurt employers by taking away access to labor, though, and is working on legislation that would create a state-based guest- worker program.

"I wouldn't do anything to hurt the Texas economy," he said.

Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub said Berman's guest-worker plan was unrealistic. Immigration legislation, he said, should be left to the federal government.

"It really isn't something state should be engaged in," he said.