News » April 23, 2008
Connecticut’s Immigration Duel
The Manhattan Institute's Tamar Jacoby calls U.S. immigration 'completely broken.'
Two Connecticut cities have taken opposite approaches to dealing with undocumented immigrants. Last summer, New Haven became the first city in the country to issue municipal IDs regardless of immigration status. (See “Despite Raids, IDs For All,” August 2007.) Meanwhile, in February, Danbury deputized some of its police officers to act in concert with agents of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On March 12, the mayors of the two cities met in the capital of Hartford for a ticketed debate in front of an audience of about a hundred, whose opinions on the issue reflected a similarly divergent range.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, a Democrat, and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican, agreed that the United States benefits from the work of undocumented immigrants.
Boughton, however, said the current influx of immigrants brings a lot of problems with it, while DeStefano said the problems stem not from the immigrants, but from how American society marginalizes them.
New Haven’s groundbreaking ID program has signed up more than 5,500 people – both citizens and non-citizens, documented and undocumented immigrants – since last summer in a city of 130,000, according to the mayor’s office.
“I feel very empowered,” DeStefano said, “and I think my community feels very empowered to make change.” The city estimates its undocumented population at between 12,000 and 15,000.
Boughton, on the other hand, defended his decision to have city detectives work with federal immigration officials to ferret out the undocumented.
“Until the American people understand that we need to have workers, but we also need to have some sense of how enforcement works and we need to be serious about enforcement, then they’re never going to accept whatever gets proposed in Congress,” he said at the debate.
Danbury’s population is 80,000, and the mayor estimates that undocumented residents account for between 5,000 and 15,000.
A third panelist, Tamar Jacoby of the conservative Manhattan Institute, said that the immigration system is “completely broken.” She said the approaches of both cities had merit, and emphasized that America must increase legal immigration to get “the busboys and gardeners” that a prosperous economy requires.
DeStefano outlined past waves of immigration. Jacoby marshaled studies to show that undocumented immigrants contribute more to the growth of the economy than they consume in services. Boughton relied on anecdotal information, like the story of a landscaper who told him he had to sell his business because competitors using undocumented laborers were undercutting his business.
During the question-and-answer session, one audience member suggested it would be worthwhile to know how American trade and foreign policy have negatively affected the hemisphere, forcing more people off their land and pushing them to el Norte to find work.
The World Affairs Council and the Hartford Courant sponsored the event, which took place at the Mark Twain House, a building decorated with several of the author’s aphorisms, including “Travel is fatal to prejudice.”
Meanwhile, members of the Community Watchdog Project, a group made up mostly of New Haven suburbanites, were videotaping the presentation. They have condemned New Haven’s municipal ID program and have demanded that undocumented residents be deported.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Melinda Tuhus is an independent journalist with 25 years of experience in print and radio, including In These Times, The New York Times, Free Speech Radio News and public radio stations.
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Reader Comments
The immigration system in this country is indeed broken. However, we always need to remember that these are people that we are talking about. They are human and all deserve the respect that all are entitled to. I know that some people have some valid issues with the security at the borders. I am concerned, too. There has to be a way to secure the borders and to let the people that are good citizens to stay. Both Republicans and democrats alike have benefited from the work of immigrants. This country would be nothing without immigrants.
Compassion should always rule the day. We have to find a way to fix this problem that is fair and not xenophobic. I hope that we can solve this and be just and humane about it.
Posted by anthony.phillips29 on Apr 23, 2008 at 6:35 AM
After careful review, anyone with a even a modicum of logic can come to no other conclusion: illegal immigration must be halted, illegal immigrants here now must be deported and legal immigration needs decreased from the approx. 2 million allowed in per year currently.
Please review the following report on the FISCAL COST OF IMMIGRATION by economist Edwin Rubenstein just released this past week:
http://www.esrresearch.com/Rubensteinreport.pdf
A partial summary of the report:
The impact on 15 Federal Departments surveyed was: $346 billion in fiscal related costs in FY 2007.
Each immigrant cost taxpayers more than $9,000 per year.
An immigrant household (2 adults, 2 children) cost taxpayers $36,000 per year.
Legal immigrants were not separated out from illegal immigrants for the fiscal impact study, but if they had been, the fiscal cost per ILLEGAL immigrant would be even more shocking than the figures quoted above.
The most extensive and authoritative study, prior to economist Edwin Rubenstein’s “The Fiscal Impact of Immigration” (April 2008) , is the National Research Council (NRC)
Posted by zeezil on Apr 23, 2008 at 6:55 AM
Have you heard the saying, when California sneezes, the rest of the country catches the flu? Generally what starts in California eventually spreads to the rest of the country. That is, unless a state takes measures to resist it. Unless every state realistically tackles illegal immigration by instituting Comprehensive Immigration ENFORCEMENT, which California has refused to do, this is what you can expect:
As of 2006, California contained greater than 25% of the total illegal alien population within the U.S. Many of these illegals concentrate in Los Angeles. New statistics from the Department of Public Social Services reveal that illegal aliens and their families in Los Angeles County collected over $37 million in welfare and food stamp allocations in November 2007
Posted by zeezil on Apr 23, 2008 at 6:56 AM
The Congressional Budget Office in December 2007 (CBO: The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments) stated the tax revenues that unauthorized immigrants generate for state and local governments do not offset the total cost of services provided to those immigrants. Illegal immigrants are a NET COST LOSS and a burden to the budgets of all states. This cost is largely borne by the states and citizen taxpayers. Federal payments allocated by Washington fall far short in reimbursing state and local government expenditures.
The annual cost for uncompensated emergency care to Mexican Border States (California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas) is $200 million. California taxpayers paid $79 million for illegal alien health care. Texas paid $74 million.
Posted by zeezil on Apr 23, 2008 at 6:58 AM
The average illegal immigrant family uses $2,700/year more in services than it pays in taxes. In 2002, this amounted to a $10.4 billion drain on the federal budget. Some of the greatest federal costs included: Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion). According to the CIS report, since most of the illegal aliens currently in the workforce do not have a high school diploma, they only qualify for low paying jobs. That translates into low federal tax payments. Should illegal aliens ever receive an amnesty, it is estimated that net deficit costs would triple to $7,700 per household due to eligibility to all federal, state and local services. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalrelease.html
Furthermore; nationwide, 40% of households headed by an illegal alien receive welfare benefits and 56% have no health insurance. Standard & Poor
Posted by zeezil on Apr 23, 2008 at 6:59 AM
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