“By 2030, the Latino share of the vote in America is likely to double,” former George W. Bush administration speechwriter Michael Gerson noted. “Some Republicans seem to be calculating that this influence can be countered by running up their percentage of support among white voters. But this is not eventually realistic, because non-college-educated whites are declining as a portion of the electorate. And it is disturbing in any case to set the goal of a whiter Republican Party. This approach would not only shrink the party, it would split it. Catholics and evangelicals, who have been central to the Republican coalition, cannot ultimately accept a message of resentment against foreigners. Their faith will not allow it.”
One of Florida Sen. Mel Martinez’s (in photo) last acts before resigning his Senate post in August was voting among only nine Republicans for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, after giving a long floor speech defending her against GOP critics. The Cuban-American’s departure “could leave no Hispanic Republicans in the Senate and three in the House — compared to 21 Democrats in Congress — and a sense that the national GOP is at a major crossroads with the nation’s fastest-growing demographic group,” noted an Associated Press analysis. Especially after some Republicans’ harsh comments about illegal immigration, the party needs work on its outreach to Hispanics. “Republicans have to be able to get the Hispanic community to focus on issues where Republicans have the right solutions — and these are critical issues: the economy being No. 1,” said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, claimed during a town hall meeting Tuesday in Derby that a third of the estimated 46 million people in the United States who don’t have health insurance are illegal immigrants. But according to estimates by the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, the number of illegal immigrants without insurance is 5.6 million, or about 12 percent of the total. That’s still a lot, but it’s far less than a third. Tiahrt also claimed that the health reform plan in Congress would pay for insuring illegals. But House and Senate bills explicitly prohibit “individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States” from receiving federal assistance to buy health insurance.
Next year’s GOP primary for Kansas secretary of state suddenly looks like a contest rather than a walk for former Kansas Republican Party chairman Kris Kobach (in photo). Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, has appointed a campaign treasurer for the race to replace four-term Republican Ron Thornburgh. J.R. Claeys of Salina is also seeking the GOP primary nod.
Meanwhile, voters curious about what makes Kobach tick — and drives his nationwide crusade to fight illegal immigration — may find enlightenment in a New York Times profile. Kobach, who now teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City law school, joined the Bush Justice Department just days before the Sept. 11 attacks and reportedly was stunned to learn that several of the hijackers had been the subject of traffic stops but the police didn’t know they were in the country illegally. “That impressed on me in a very salient way that there was a huge missed opportunity there that might have caused the 9/11 plot to unravel,” he told the Times, explaining his motivation to find ways to turn local police into the “eyes and ears” of federal immigration authorities.
As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, President Obama now wants to tackle immigration reform. Obama plans to speak on the issue next month and then convene working groups to discuss possible legislation. The United States certainly needs a more orderly system and needs to figure out what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already here. But isn’t there a limit to the number of difficult challenges that Congress and the administration can tackle at the same time?
The new year apparently will bring another quixotic attempt to repeal the law allowing some qualifying children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities and colleges. Rep. Lance Kinzer (in photo), R-Olathe, and some other conservative lawmakers plan to take another charge at the 2004 law next session despite the fact that past efforts to repeal it have failed. Or that costly court challenges to the law have failed. Or that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would veto any repeal that happened to make it out of the Legislature. Or that the state universities support the law. Or that law benefits the state’s economic development efforts. The only encouraging news is that Kinzer and others don’t plan to revive — at least not next year — this past session’s failed attempt to turn employers into immigration police.
“Mexico City has begun working on expanding its subway system. That’s right. Apparently, they’re adding stops in San Diego and Los Angeles.” – Conan O’Brien
“And the Mexican government has opened up a telephone hotline here for illegal immigrants living in Arizona. Yeah. Here’s the best part, the calls are answered by a guy in India.” – Jay Leno
Remember the company that hired illegal immigrants to build the border fence? Here’s more ironic news: Five of the people who cleaned the home of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were undocumented. “Our Homeland Security can’t police their own home. How can they police our borders?” complained the owner of the cleaning company.
In the end Wednesday, a legislative panel put the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit to work on a limited survey of the existing data about the financial costs and benefits of illegal immigration, rather than the sweeping audit sought by state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita. That’s something. And the discussion was telling, as lawmakers wrestled with how to get solid data to guide further attempts to pass laws targeting illegal immigration. The point is that any legislative action should be informed by facts, rather than fear and ignorance.
Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, even cast doubt on the notion that, full audit or not, the Legislature would or could do much about illegal immigration (“Not in my lifetime,” he predicted), because federal law already requires that public schools accept undocumented children and emergency rooms aren’t going to start turning away illegal immigrants in need of help. “This is America,” Donovan said. “We don’t do that.”
Every time the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stages a major raid to arrest illegal immigrants, it causes a stir among those who say the federal agents are hurting businesses and breaking up families. The most recent example happened in Laurel, Miss., where agents raided a factory and took 595 suspected illegal immigrants into custody. It was the biggest workplace raid in U.S. history. Some workers at the plant where the raid took place applauded as the suspected illegal workers were taken away. Employees had long complained about illegal workers being allowed to work more overtime and being promoted over legal workers. So what are federal agents to do? Ignore the problem, and let illegal immigrants continue to take jobs away from U.S. citizens? No. We suggest they be allowed to continue to do their job.
— Minot (N.D.) Daily News editorial
On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I call upon the Department of Homeland Security and President Bush to re-examine the use of work-site enforcement raids as an immigration enforcement tool. The humanitarian costs of these raids are immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society. For more than a year now, the department has targeted employers that hire unauthorized workers by using force to enter work sites and arrest immigrant workers. During the process of these raids, U.S.-citizen children have been separated from their parents for days, if not longer; immigrants arrested have not been afforded the rights of due process; and local communities, including legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens, have been disrupted and dislocated. As our government confronts the challenges of immigration, let it not forget one of its core duties: protecting the family unit as the fundamental institution upon which society and government itself depends.
— Bishop John C. Wester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration
If the Legislature intends to inject itself into the federal problem of illegal immigration, it should do so knowing as much as possible about what undocumented residents cost Kansas, how much they pay in taxes and how they affect labor costs and employment. That was why state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, successfully sought an off-session audit of illegal immigration’s economic impact. So it was good to see such a planned legislative study escape the ax last week in Topeka, after deputy post auditor Leo Hafner told legislators that studying illegal immigration is “one of those things where you’re literally trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.” When the audit panel considers the issue again this month, it should try to focus the study, not scrap it.
“Before we decide on fiscal policies that affect our economy, shouldn’t we have some idea on what we are doing and what the outcomes might be if we make those changes?” said state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita. Absolutely. That’s why Dillmore was smart to insert a provision in the state budget requiring an audit of the cost of illegal immigration in Kansas. The audit, which is expected to be completed during the next legislative session, will try to determine the costs to the state of Kansas for benefits and ervices provided to illegal immigrants, the estimated tax revenues from illegal immigrants, and whether the taxes they pay offset the costs of benefits provided. Though there is a lot of rhetoric about how much illegal immigrants cost taxpayers, it may be that the taxes they pay and the economic impact they make exceed the social costs, and that punitive laws might harm the state’s economy. A study by the Oklahoma Bankers Association determined that an anti-illegal immigration law in that state will cause $1.8 billion in economic losses.
The legal challenge of a 2004 in-state tuition law reached the finish line Thursday, as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The law has been allowing about 200 eligible kids of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Kansas’ public colleges and universities — and better their lives and the state’s economy in the process. The rejections at the federal district court and appellate levels were based on the plaintiffs’ lack of “standing” to sue, so no court has yet passed judgment on the law itself. But it’s good to know this case has run its course.
Maybe now people will stop believing that thousands of illegal immigrants are receiving public assistance in Kansas. Unfortunately, dispelling the myth cost taxpayers millions of dollars and cost thousands of citizens their health insurance.
Kansas Medicaid director Andy Allison told state lawmakers this week that it cost the state $1 million to comply with new federal requirements that Medicaid recipients provide proof of citizenship, and that 20,000 eligible Kansans lost their health insurance because they had difficulty producing the required documentation. So how many illegal immigrants did the state catch in this crackdown? One.
Other states have had similar results. In fact, Kansas actually did better than Colorado, which spent $2 million and didn’t catch a single illegal immigrant seeking benefits.
“State taxpayers are picking up the dollars-and-cents costs of a failed federal policy,” complained Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence.
Four local families have filed a discrimination lawsuit against St. Anne Catholic School, challenging a rule that students can speak only English during the school day.
We’re not inclined to wade into a private school matter. But before activists against illegal immigrants get up in arms, some points to consider:
The Spanish-speaking students in this case are U.S. citizens who are bilingual — English is their primary language. The parents aren’t asking that the students be allowed to speak Spanish in classrooms — at issue is whether the students should be able to speak Spanish outside the classroom, during recess or other free time.
It’s too bad that any American student would be dissuaded from being bilingual, when U.S. schools, public and private, actively promote the benefits of being fluent in more than one language. How does this “English only†school rule support that educational goal?
It’s a common gripe of immigration critics: Immigrants today aren’t as interested in assimilating into American society as past immigrants. But a new study found that as a group, immigrants of the past quarter century have been assimilating at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, the Washington Post reported. And this is in spite of the fact that today’s immigrants arrive here with lower levels of English proficiency and less earning power than immigrants at the turn of the 20th century.
Good for the joint Legislative Post Audit Committee for green-lighting a study this week of the impact of illegal immigration in the state. The study, requested by state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, is needed to inform any future state legislation on illegal immigration. It will assess the costs to the state for social services due to illegal immigration, the revenues or other benefits to the state (such as taxes paid), and the effect on the labor market. If the frustrating debate on illegal immigration this session has proved anything, it’s that the state should take action carefully, based on facts rather than fear.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, told an El Dorado audience recently that a physical fence has yet to be built on the southern border because of “technical problems†but also because of lawsuits, primarily brought by organizations concerned about endangered species’ migration patterns. He also said: “One of the things we look at is what damage is caused by illegal immigrants coming through the national park system. They have a huge environmental impact. We find abandoned cars, a lot of trash. We spend millions of dollars every year just cleaning up after illegals coming through here, and we can’t build a fence because of the lawsuits. It’s a really frustrating experience.â€
A key Kansas lawmaker is opposing a provision in an immigration bill to repeal a state law allowing children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition.
Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, chairman of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, called the repeal efforts a “nonstarter,†and noted that the Legislature had failed in three previous efforts to repeal the law.
Under the 2004 law, children of illegal immigrants are eligible to pay in-state tuition if they have lived in Kansas for at least three years, graduated from a Kansas high school and are on the path toward citizenship.
According to the Kansas Board of Regents, 243 students are benefiting from the law, with 193 attending community colleges, 46 at state universities, and four at technical colleges or schools.
Would we rather these young people not attend college? Be unemployed?
As supporters of the law noted in testimony last week, regardless of how one stands on illegal immigration, this is about making sure our young people are prepared for the future.
“Why would we want to deprive a young man or woman from the opportunity to develop their skills and abilities so that they will be a productive and contributing member of our society?†asked Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., chairman of the Kansas Catholic Conference.
State Sen. Peggy Palmer (in photo), R-Augusta, claims in a commentary on today’s Opinion pages that opponents of her illegal immigration bill — which include our state’s most prominent business and farming organizations — are employing scare tactics. But she’s the one who has been promoting fear. Palmer titled her bill the Kansas Illegal Immigration Relief Act, implying that our state is suffering a scourge. And she has talked about stopping an “invasion,†warned about terrorists and said that “I don’t think we want to become like California.†Yet she seems surprised that some people are offended by her comments and concerned about the cost and harm of her proposals.
To his credit, Senate President Steve Morris (in photo), R-Hugoton, is expressing caution about proposed crackdowns on illegal immigrants and businesses. Getting tough on those who forge documents and pay employees in cash to dodge the law is appropriate, he said in a Hutchinson News article. But “I don’t think we need a law in place that is punitive, that punishes everyone for the sins of the few,†he said. He also said: “I think the feds have a big responsibility to step up to the plate and take care of it.â€
Good for state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, for seeking to ground the push to pass anti-immigration legislation in some facts. He filed a request last week that the Legislative Division of Post Audit do an analysis of the economic impact of illegal immigration — to look at the taxes they pay, social services they use and related labor costs — so that any bills passed are “based on factual, objective information,†he told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
“If the state Legislature is going to make a serious effort at immigration reform in 2008, then it is time to separate facts from partisan rhetoric,†he said.
He’s right. The questions are whether state auditors can accurately quantify this shadowy population, and whether the anti-immigration activists will care if the numbers don’t fit their plans.
None of the leading GOP presidential candidates has demogogued the immigration issue more than Mitt Romney. But that isn’t stopping him from appealing to Spanish-speaking voters. Romney is running a Spanish-language television ad in Florida, narrated by one of his sons.
State GOP leaders are putting a new voter ID requirement at the top of their legislative priorities, saying they fear that illegal immigrants are being registered to vote.
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, pointed to “potentially thousands of those registrations out there, so it is important that we protect the integrity of this next election,†he said.
But there’s no evidence of illegal immigrant voters undermining the polls in Kansas — not one documented case.
Of far greater concern is the certainty that new photo ID requirements actually would dampen turnout by legitimate U.S. citizens. The fact is, many elderly who don’t drive and low-income residents have trouble producing or locating the right kind of identification.
Shouldn’t the goal be to help more people vote, not make it more difficult for them?
Vote ID supporters need to offer more proof that there is a real fraud problem. So far, it just sounds like more immigrant fearmongering.
State Sen. Peggy Palmer, R-Augusta, said that legislation she is proposing to crack down on illegal immigrants “will protect Kansas against the foreign invasion that undermines our national security and drains the resources of legal aliens and U.S. citizens.†But as a recent Wall Street Journal editorial noted, such overwrought, fear-based rhetoric doesn’t match reality.
Statistics and studies have shown that illegal immigrants neither increase the crime rate nor the welfare rolls in the United States. And “for all the talk about the ‘invasion’ of million upon million of job-consuming immigrants,†the editorial noted, the nation’s unemployment rate remains low, which indicates that immigrants aren’t stealing jobs but filling them and contributing to the overall economic growth.
