Immigration Law

Conservative columnist Linda Chavez has an interesting opinion piece in today's Dallas Morning News. She writes about the recently-passed immigration enforcement law in Arizona and reflects that the lack of use of the law indicates that citizens of Arizona understand they are better off with illegal immigrants than without them. Here are excerpts:

Arizona has been ground zero in the fight against illegal immigration ? but a funny thing happened earlier this month when a new anti-illegal-immigrant state law went into effect. Nothing.

The law, one of the toughest in the nation, requires jurisdictions to investigate complaints by ordinary citizens against local businesses that may be employing illegal immigrants. But apparently most Arizonans have better things to worry about.

A new study by the conservative think tank Americas Majority Foundation ( www.amermaj.com) suggests a possible explanation why more Arizonans aren't rushing to run off illegal workers. It turns out that Arizonans may be better off ? not worse ? because of the presence of so many immigrants in the population.

States with the highest percentage of immigrants or the largest recent influx of immigrants ? 19 "high immigrant jurisdictions" in all ? are wealthier and have better employment numbers, and most boast better crime figures than those with fewer immigrants.

These statistics don't mean that illegal immigration is not a problem for many jurisdictions. Illegal immigrants do impose costs, including increased health care and education expenses. Ironically, one of the growing costs is for incarcerating illegal immigrants picked up in raids or for offenses that usually don't justify jail time.

These increases are a direct result of efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. And if states like Arizona decide to vigorously enforce their new laws, we can expect to see these costs go up without much, if any, offset in savings to those jurisdictions.

The immigration debate is likely to continue undeterred by the facts the Americas Majority Foundation has pulled together. But the overwhelming majority of Americans ? two-thirds to three-fourths, according to most polls ? have no wish to see most long-term illegal residents rounded up and sent home.

What they do want is a more concerted effort to secure the borders so the numbers don't keep increasing. Once we get this election year behind us, maybe the sound of silence emanating even from places like Arizona will finally be heard.