When the national political debate on immigration spilled into the streets this year, even those pushing the hardest for tough crackdowns were surprised.
“It has moved even quicker than I anticipated,” said Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, a leader in the call for closing American borders. “Trying to shift the debate on an issue like this in a country as large as ours and as diverse as ours is very difficult.”
The issue has dominated national and state politics this year and is the focus of a rare special session of the Colorado legislature that opens today. Colorado lawmakers will focus on proposals to curb services to illegal immigrants and crack down on the employers who hire them.
But what is the broader, national fight driving these reforms really about? And why is it happening now?
Some say the movement simmered for years but was launched in earnest in 2004, when President Bush proposed a controversial plan to crack down on the borders while granting amnesty to some undocumented immigrants already here. That ignited anti-illegal-immigration advocates such as the Minutemen, who began patrolling the Mexican border.
It exploded in December when the U.S. House passed a bill that would make illegal immigrants felons, spawning immigrant-rights marches across the country. The size that those marches achieved stunned even their own organizers.
“I’m a U.S. citizen, but some of my family members are not. This not only affects immigrants, it affects the whole family,” said Maricela Reyes, 16, a student at Denver School of Science & Technology who participated in one of the spring rallies in Denver. “This country was made on immigrants, and we want the same opportunities those people had back then.”
The issue has ignited election-year debates about the impact illegal immigrants have on jobs, social services, national security and American culture.
Activists on both sides of the issue say the discussion is long overdue. But that’s about all they agree on.
Taxpayers or tax drain?
Much is made of the cost of illegal immigration. But one group says such immigrants pay off much of that in taxes.
Immigrant-rights activists say any national reform should include some type of amnesty to allow illegal immigrants already in the country to gain legal status. The immigrants, they say, are hard-working, taxpaying residents who contribute more than they take.
“A majority of undocumented immigrants are working on the books, they have Social Security and income taxes withheld,” said Randy Capps, senior research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington. “They spend money and pay sales tax. They live places, so they pay property taxes.”
Anti-illegal-immigrant groups, however, say illegal immigrants depress wages and cost taxpayers billions of dollars in education, health care and other services.
“This is a high-cost, low-tax- yield people who impose an incredible burden on our taxpayers,” said former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, an activist on immigration issues. “I don’t know anybody who has a straight face that says illegal immigrants pay their own way.”
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and about 250,000 in Colorado.
The Colorado nonpartisan Legislative Council estimates the state spends more than $200 million on services to illegal immigrants, including $157.9 million for public education, $30.9 million for emergency health care, $28.1 million for housing inmates and $460,606 for child welfare and other programs.
The state is required by federal law to provide the bulk of those programs. And some reports show taxes paid by undocumented immigrants largely offset those costs.
A recent report from the Denver-based Bell Policy Center estimates Colorado spends nearly $225 million on those services. But the report also said illegal immigrants pay $159 million to $194 million in state and local taxes, or about 70 percent to 86 percent of those costs.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, undocumented immigrant adult men ages 18-44 are more likely to be in the labor force than U.S. natives – 92 percent versus 88 percent.
“It’s easy for us to say we want to close the door because we don’t like the fiscal burden associated, but we also have to realize the economy is putting all of these people to work,” said Pia Orrenius, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “As consumers, we benefit from immigration because immigration lowers the prices of consumer goods and services. But when the taxman comes, we pay for the immigrants.”
Some argue that illegal immigrants lower wages because they are willing to work for much less than most Americans.
Between 1996 and 2003, immigrants accounted for 55 percent of the employment growth, Orrenius said. In some industries, they accounted for nearly 90 percent of job growth. And in regions where natives are leaving, immigrants helped boost rural economies.
“We focus a lot on the fiscal burden and wage impact on the labor market,” Orrenius said. “The thing we have to remember is immigrants are contributing, filling over half the new jobs being generated.”
And all undocumented immigrants pay some taxes, said Capps of the Urban Institute.
In 2003, the Social Security Administration pocketed $7 billion in taxes from 7.5 million workers with Social Security numbers that didn’t match other identifying information. The Bell Policy Center says Social Security’s chief actuary estimates that about three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes.
IRS leaps over problem
The ITIN system allows those without Social Security numbers to file tax returns. Millions have done so.
The federal government in 1996 set up a system that allows illegal immigrants to file tax returns even if they don’t have valid Social Security numbers.
Before that, undocumented immigrants were issued Social Security cards. But in the early 1980s the cards were marked “not valid for employment,” and in 1996 the Social Security Administration began limiting the issuance of the card to citizens and legal residents.
Because of that restriction, the IRS began giving undocumented immigrants Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, for tax-filing purposes.
Now, undocumented immigrants who use false Social Security numbers to get jobs can still file tax returns with their assigned ITINs.
Between 1996 and 2003, more than 7.2 million ITINs were issued, according to the IRS. From those ITINs, more than 19 million tax returns were filed during those same years.
“Our job is to make sure that everyone who earns income within our borders pays the proper amount of taxes, even if they may not be working here legally,” IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told a congressional committee in February. “… It is important to understand that the ITIN program is bringing taxpayers into the system.”
The debate on immigration has focused more on security and the costs of providing services than whether and how immigrants are taxed.
In the special Colorado legislative session that starts today, lawmakers will focus on cutting undocumented immigrants’ access to programs that are not federally mandated and cracking down on employers who hire them.
And while those proposals would not affect the big-ticket items of education and medical care, backers of the proposed changes say they are intent on sending a message to undocumented immigrants: that they are not welcome in Colorado.
Others say nothing legislators do could make life here harder than it already is where most illegal immigrants come from.
“People need to start thinking of a more balanced solution instead of trying to make life as miserable as possible for undocumented immigrants who are already here,” Capps said.
“You could make life completely miserable for them by rendering all services unreachable, and they will become afraid to talk to anyone in a uniform – and that is still probably better than what they had back home because they have a roof over their heads and have a job.”
Staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera can be reached at 303-820-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com.
