Some costs of immigrants to state put at $© million
Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Reports from state agencies revealed Monday that Arkansas spends about $ © million annually to educate and imprison immigrants and their families, a number that state lawmakers say is bound to grow if they don’t take steps to curb illegal immigration.
State Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, said at a legislative hearing Monday that Arkansas lags behind neighboring states in passing laws to discourage illegal aliens from settling down in the Natural State.
“If we don’t become very serious about this issue and confront it... we could easily become a safe haven for a lot of illegals,” Green said at the joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.
States have passed a record number of immigration laws this year. But the Arkansas Legislature has tended to shy away from the issue that its members have generally regarded as a problem best addressed at the federal level.
But after Congress failed to act on immigration legislation this year, lawmakers, particularly from Northwest Arkansas, began discussing the best way to tackle the issue at the state level. The Legislature next convenes in regular session in 2009.
Green, Rep. Jon Woods, RSpringdale, and Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, asked state agencies to calculate what they spend on illegal aliens. Large state agencies such as the Department of Human Services and Department of Health have not reported yet, so the $ © million figure is only a part of the total expenditure.
Most of the state’s spending, at least the portion reported Monday, was on federally required public education of immigrant children. That number, about $ 154 million, is what the state spent last year teaching children who are learning English.
The state doesn’t track what percentage of that amount is spent on the children of illegal aliens, said Andre Guerrero, whose title is director of programs for language minority students for the Arkansas Department of Education.
Guerrero told lawmakers that the state doesn’t collect information on the immigration status of students in light of the 1982 U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which requires school districts to admit all children who meet residency requirements.
Green said he hopes to find a way to count children of illegal aliens, anyway, “to be front and forward to the taxpayers about what kind of money the state’s paying out there.” Guerrero said the federal Office of Civil Rights has advised the Education Department that it cannot deny admission on the basis of immigration status or even inquire about information that would disclose that status.
“This gets to the heart of why it’s difficult to make that distinction for our department, maybe not for other state agencies,” he said.
Green asked if the department would collect Social Security numbers if the Legislature passed such a requirement.
Guerrero said the department would follow any state law the Legislature passed. But he added that someone may try to argue that such a requirement would create a “chilling” effect that would result in some parents not sending their children to school.
Sen. Steve Faris, D-Central, said constituents want to know what state lawmakers are doing to ensure that the state isn’t spending taxpayer money on illegal aliens. “They’re tired of hearing us say there’s nothing we can do,” Faris said. “That’s kind of what I hear y’all saying.” The spending reported Monday is a tiny fraction of the state’s $ 19 billion-a-year budget. The agencies that reported Monday included: Department of Correction, which reported spending $ 1. 86 million in fiscal 2006 to house illegal aliens in the state prison system. The agency reported that 158 of its more than 14, 000 inmates were illegal aliens.
At $ 52 a day, the cost to house the illegal-alien inmates comes to about $ 2 million. The state received $ 184, 730 in reimbursement from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. That’s a federal program that pays states and local governments that have to spend money to house illegalalien criminals.
George Brewer, research and planning administrator for the department, said the agency reports to federal officials regarding immigration status of inmates though that’s not required. Even if they’re illegal aliens, immigration officials don’t pick them up until after their sentences are served, Brewer said. Green said that was news to him and he’s disappointed to learn that the federal government doesn’t reimburse the state fully for those costs. Department of Community Correction, which reported spending $ 1. 51 million housing and supervising resident and illegal aliens in the fiscal year that ended in June. The state and counties also incur other costs related to incarceration that amount to millions of dollars that weren’t itemized in the report but contribute to in the final $ © million total. Department of Higher Education, which spent $ 205, 000 in fiscal 2007 on scholarships to legal immigrants. Illegal aliens aren’t eligible for state scholarships, the agency reported.
The Insurance Department, which reported that it doesn’t keep data on the impact on consumers of accidents caused by uninsured motorists who are illegal aliens. All drivers, including illegal aliens, are required to have insurance, the department reported.
Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, said he appreciated the agency reports so far but looks forward to more information. “We’ve just scratched the surface,” said Glover. “There’s no question in my mind this is going to be a big issue in the next session.” Whitaker said illegal immigration is having an enormous impact on the state, “far beyond what any of us imagined.” “We must close the barn door before everything’s gone,” she said.
A recent report showed that the economic impact may be positive, however.
A study released in April by the Urban Institute, funded by Little Rock’s Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, reported that Arkansas’ alien population contributes more to the state’s budget than it takes from social services.
Through a complex calculation that included factors such as earnings, tax contributions, health-care and education usage, the study reported that alien workers on average contributed $ 158 more to the state in 2004 than they took away from it.
The same study reported that 51 percent of all of Arkansas’ aliens are here illegally, likely because of the influx in recent years from Mexico and Central America. It said that Arkansas’ Hispanic community grew faster than that of any other state between 2000 and 2005.
In an unusual occurrence, the lawmakers who had gathered to hear the testimony packed up during the middle of their meeting and switched rooms. Faris ordered the move after he and legislative staff members noticed green mold under the desks in the room. Particles had begun to float around after being disturbed.
Faris, the chairman of the Senate committee, ran the meeting and said he interrupted it out of concern for the health of those in the room.
Natasha Naragon, spokesman for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, who has responsibility for the care of the Capitol, said later in the day that the mold grew in the room because there was standing water in a drip pan in one of the air-conditioning units that sat idle for a while.
The cleaning staff fixed the problem and there’s “no cause for alarm,” she said.
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