Papers, please.
The great immigrant ID check is on. Colorado legislators just passed some of the toughest state immigration bills in the U.S. The governor is expected to sign them into law soon.
The new laws should keep the November elections from becoming a nativist diatribe. But before the celebration gets out of hand, let’s consider the clout any one state has over illegal immigration.
When he called the special session of the General Assembly to deal with undocumented state residents, Gov. Bill Owens said he was looking for legislation that was “substantive,” not “symbolic.”
“How will you distinguish?” I asked.
“I’ll know it when I see it,” the guv said.
I’m still looking. If “trust your gut” rules immigration reform, stomachs will rumble until the U.S. House of Representatives agrees to work out national immigration reform with the U.S. Senate.
Fiscal notes accompanying Colorado’s immigration crackdown tell the story.
Here’s what economists expect the state to collect from new sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants:
Less than $5,000 a year.
Here’s how much economists expect state tax revenues to rise because employers can’t deduct from state income taxes wages paid to undocumented workers:
Zero.
According to economists, “potential cost savings … cannot be identified” for a new photo-ID system for people collecting non-emergency state social services.
The journey into immigration reform is devilish. Overlapping jurisdictions and contradictory rules can pave the best intentions into a road to Hades.
Colorado’s new laws attack illegal immigration at its source – jobs. But the legislature’s finest move this week may have been asking voters to authorize a lawsuit against the federal government to enforce immigration laws. Otherwise, you get confusion, not the fear of God.
Take the new state law that keeps employers from writing off wages for undocumented workers. It is illegal to hire those people, said Josh Harwood, an economist with the state. Yet the Internal Revenue Code allows employers to deduct their wages as expenses that reduce employers’ tax liabilities.
That’s a shot in the foot in the battle against illegal immigration. But it’s up to Congress to fix it. Ergo, the line Colorado will add to its tax form for reporting undocumented workers’ wages will remain blank. “People have to admit they violated federal law for us to collect more (tax) revenue,” Harwood explained.
This will be as easy as monitoring how hard employers check their workers’ legal status. A new state law requires employers to give Colorado’s Division of Labor and Employment copies of employees’ I-9 identification forms.
That appears to violate federal law, said immigration lawyer Ann Allott. “I-9s are federal forms in personnel files that are confidential.”
Only congressional action can change that, Allott claimed. But Congress refuses to act. So good luck collecting new state fines of $5,000 to $25,000 for “reckless disregard” in hiring illegal immigrants.
Economists assumed less than five grand a year. With a staff of four to look into complaints and to do random checks, enforcement will be a struggle, even if the state can get hold of the I-9s.
As for denying non-federally mandated state benefits to illegal immigrants – the push that started this political jockeying – state economist Chris Ward didn’t have a clue what new photo-ID requirements might save Coloradans. One hint came in Ward’s fiscal note. The governor has said 50,000 illegal immigrants collect state services. But state courts estimate that the photo-ID law will produce only 200 new cases of fraud each year. No one can say how many undocumented citizens will simply stop asking for help.
Uncertainty will reign until Congress acts.
There is no question that Colorado moved in the right direction this week. But there is also no question that without federal changes, the toughest state immigration laws will have no more substance than saltines in soup.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
