Managing Who Gets In: State's Middle Class Hinges on Bush's Immigration Policies
Thursday, December 30, 2004
By: Dan Stein

San Francisco Chronicle

Editor's note: These are the second in a series of year-end guest opinions on how California can move forward on issues of importance to the state during President Bush's second term.

In the final presidential debate, moderator Bob Schieffer prefaced a question about immigration policy by noting that it brought him the most e- mail. Oddly enough, the five minutes or so that President Bush and Sen. John Kerry spent responding to Schieffer's question was pretty much the extent of the discussion this issue received during the campaign.

While Bush and Kerry did their best to dodge immigration during the campaign, it is a matter that President Bush will be forced to confront in his second term -- particularly the huge growth of illegal immigration. With an estimated 10 million to 12 million people living illegally in the United States (perhaps 3 million of them in California), it is a phenomenon that affects every aspect of life.

One week after his re-election, President Bush dusted off an immigration proposal first made in January 2004 that proved to be so wildly unpopular with voters that it was not only pulled off the table, but shoved to the back of the closet for the duration of the campaign. The Bush plan -- now back on the agenda -- calls for turning current illegal aliens into guest workers for six years (what happens to them at the end of six year is apparently a problem for some future president to grapple with), and allowing unlimited numbers of new guest workers to enter the country.

The Bush proposal would be a viable solution if the problem of mass illegal immigration were merely a question of legality. As Californians have understood for decades, the problem is not just about people breaking the law. The phenomenon of mass illegal immigration has profound consequences on labor markets, education, public health and the fiscal solvency of state and local governments.

According to a new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigration now takes a $10.5 billion annual bite out of California's budget, or about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident.

Changing the status of millions of illegal immigrants to guest workers will not change the impact that they have on society. Legalizing illegal immigrants will not alter the fact that the state's largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, is attempting to educate a student body, half of whom are classified as "limited English proficient." In fact, it will exacerbate the situation, as more special-needs students across California crowd into schools that cannot cope with those already there.

Similarly, the Bush plan will create greater strains on the state's collapsing public health-care system and almost every other social service, as employers are encouraged to take advantage of an even larger pool of low-wage laborers who work without benefits. Addressing merely the illegality of illegal immigration, while ignoring its impact, would deal a death blow to California's disappearing middle class.

Rather than surrendering to the demands of business interests who have turned illegal immigration into a vast labor-subsidy program, President Bush needs to adopt policies that recognize the stake that middle-class Americans have in immigration policy.

Instead of creating legal avenues for employers to take advantage of low- wage foreign workers and allowing them to pass on the social costs to California taxpayers, President Bush must make it mandatory for all employers to verify the legal status of all new employees (using an electronic verification system that has been successfully tested in California) and enforcing the law against those who fail to comply. By cracking down on employers, prospective illegal immigrants can be discouraged, and many who are here can be encouraged to leave on their own.

The president and Congress must also use the power of the federal purse strings to rein in a profligate California Legislature that, in spite of gaping budget deficits, continues to lavish benefits and services on illegal immigrants, while shielding them from enforcement of federal immigration laws.

President Bush has expressed a willingness to spend "political capital" in the coming four years. Using some of it to address the social, economic and fiscal impact of mass immigration on people in California and around the nation would be political capital well spent. The survival of the middle class in California and the rest of the country may depend on it.