There are few issues as polarizing today as the issue of what to do about the estimated 11 million people who live in the United States without authorization. The current administration has made its position very clear; it believes extreme enforcement and mass deportations are the best way to handle this issue. But let us take a minute to consider the effects of such an approach.
First, we all depend on government services in one way or another which are provided by taxes. We pay all kinds of taxes to various levels of government, and so do immigrants, undocumented or not. Many people present in our country without authorization do indeed pay state and federal income taxes (research indicates they pay a higher effective tax rate than most U.S. citizens) and everyone pays local and state sales taxes, property taxes, excise taxes and so forth.
Eliminating 11 million people’s tax contributions will have an impact on the way governments at all levels provide services. In La Plata County, we could lose as much as 10 percent of our population to extreme immigration enforcement, putting a very unwelcome burden on local governments that are already struggling to maintain services in light of decreasing revenues. Not to mention leaving local businesses without employees, and in some cases, managers and even owners. Our local restaurants and hotels (engines of our local tourism-based economy) would take a huge hit, as would the construction sector, but we would feel the effects in every part of the economy.
Increasing U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Envorcement agents, detentions and deportations comes with a pretty hefty price tag. We already pay about $140 per person per day to keep people locked up in privately run immigration detention centers while their cases move slowly through the court systems for months or even years. Deportation is even more expensive – on the order of $10,000 per person according to conservative estimates. This type of spending will certainly not be sustainable in the face of decreasing tax revenues and loss of economic output.
Moreover, a majority of the undocumented population has family members who are U.S. citizens, often children. I have seen families torn apart because of a parent’s status, and it is heartbreaking as they decide what to do with their children. One family from this area decided to take their 14-year-old U.S. citizen daughter with them to Mexico. She had never been to Mexico before, was not a Mexican citizen and was not comfortable enough with Spanish to do well in school there. If local school districts lose all the children of undocumented parents to this type of extreme enforcement, it would have a huge impact on the district’s per pupil funding, and our local economy would lose a large percentage of its future workforce.
There are also many mixed-status families in which one parent is a citizen and the other is undocumented. I have seen enforcement actions tear these families apart with U.S. citizen spouses and children left without breadwinners. I have seen economically strong and independent families have to turn to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Medicaid for the first time after losing an undocumented family member; that is an extra strain on state and local resources. One of the most difficult things I have witnessed in my work is a mother whose husband had been deported cry uncontrollably when her 2-year-old son asked her when daddy was coming home.
Many will say that the negative consequences are worthwhile because extreme enforcement will keep dangerous criminals off the streets. This is, however, not the case. Many peer reviewed studies have shown that immigrants, regardless of their status, are five to six times less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens, and that jurisdictions that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE have lower levels of crime than comparable jurisdictions which do not limit this type of cooperation.
Many local law enforcement agencies across the country understand this, and many have been vocal with their opposition to this administration’s plans to prioritize enforcement of immigration offenses over normal police duties; they understand that this will not keep anybody safe, but will damage trust and cooperation between police and the communities they are duty-bound to protect.
When discussing this issue, we should remember that we are talking about human lives and the futures of millions of people, particularly children, in this country. We should be looking for ways to keep families together, not tear them apart. Let’s build our economies, not dismantle them.
Danny Quinlan is executive director of Compañeros: Four Corners immigrant resource center. Reach him at 375-9406 or companerosdurango@gmail.com.
