CityBeat Misses the Beat on Combs' Illegal Immigration Bill

Margo Pierce pens a piece for Cincinnati's CityBeat that attempts to smear the intentions of State Rep. Courtney Combs and his attempts to have the state of Ohio enforce immigration laws.

The gist of the piece is that Combs and his proposed law is bigoted and prejudiced against immigrants. That couldn't be farther from the truth. But as usual, leave to the liberals to smear first and get the story entirely wrong. I will give her credit though, she appears to have at least asked for an interview with Combs. I suspect that Combs suspected the smear job her article was and didn't bother. I'll bother though...

A bill in the Ohio House of Representatives would set significant new requirements for law enforcement and businesses, with a mind to making it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to live and work in the state.

They are more than just undocumented, Ms. Pierce, they are here illegally and shouldn't be here at all.

The bill, proposed by State Rep. Courtney Combs (R-Hamilton), is so new that it hasn't yet been assigned a legislative number. But advocates for immigrants are already criticizing the bill, saying it will feed a growing animosity to newcomers, encourage racial profiling and create cumbersome requirements for business and law enforcement.

Of course advocates are criticizing the bill...the bill actually insists that Ohio enforce the law of the land.

The bill would make it a felony to knowingly transport or "conceal" an undocumented immigrant and would regulate the issuing of government ID cards. Other provisions include:

a requirement for businesses that have state contracts to verify the immigration status of job applicants;

a requirement for law enforcement and prisons to verify the immigration status of those who are arrested; and

a presumption that undocumented immigrants are flight risks and should be denied bond.

Sounds like common sense to me...

Immigrants are spurring economic growth, feeding money into the Social Security system -- soon to be stressed by retiring baby boomers -- and expanding the diversity of our culture with the heritage of music, food and art of their upbringing.

Immigrants are great for this country. I welcome them with open arms. America is the great nation we are today because we are a nation of immigrants who have assimilated into the American culture.

Illegal immigrants are a burden on this country and are actually costing this nation far more than we are getting in return. Furthermore, illegal immigrants tend not to want to assimilate in to the culture and prefer to carry on their "business" in Spanish and stay sheltered in their communities. Sure, it would be difficult for an illegal to be welcomed in to a community when they have chosen to ignore the laws of the host, so they have that going for them.

But Comb's bill refers to immigrants as aliens -- an 18th century term for foreigners -- who must be stopped.

They ARE foreigners, Margo. And they don't want to become Americans. The few who do made a mistake...they should have come here legally and they would have been welcomed with open arms.

"People are thinking, 'Look how many millions of illegal immigrants! We've got to do something about this,' " says Maria Zayas-Davis, a Cincinnati immigration attorney.

Yes, Maria, we do need to do something. We have no idea who is in our country and what their intentions are. You may have heard about this little conflict called the War on Terror. Having our borders this wide open is a security risk and represents a clear and present danger to the United States of America. So, yeah, I think we ought to do something about that.

Parts of the bill duplicate existing regulations by requiring "public agencies to verify the individuals who apply for certain public benefits are United States citizens or qualified aliens."

We will never cure this problem without getting at the source of the problem... The people who hire illegal aliens are the source of the problem. Deal with the employers, and the employees will not have a reson to be here. Problem solved.

It also forbids employers from firing an employee with legal status in order to hire one without it.

And you have a problem with that Margo? Because I don't...

"Parts of (this bill) are redundant and perpetuating misperceptions about immigrants," Zayas-Davis said. "The bill talks about people who don't have immigration status not having access to public programs, housing, welfare and food stamps. (Immigrants) fear even thinking about even going to these programs because, if they don't have immigration status, then they're concerned that they're going to be deported. It's not like immigrants sit around master-planning how they're going to get these benefits. The message behind that legislation is that immigrants are taking, taking, taking from the system when it's not even happening."

Pretending the illegal aliens don't engage in this fraud is disingenuous, Ms. Zayas-Davis, and illegals ARE taking, taking, taking from the system. Ever hear of the Center for Immigration Studies? They have a VERY interesting take on this, Ms. Zayas-Davis. Perhaps I should fling some numbers on you:

Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.

Among the largest costs are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).

With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services.

On average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households.

Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth. Thus, greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.

If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion.

Costs increase dramatically because unskilled immigrants with legal status -- what most illegal aliens would become -- can access government programs, but still tend to make very modest tax payments.

Although legalization would increase average tax payments by 77 percent, average costs would rise by 118 percent.

The fact that legal immigrants with few years of schooling are a large fiscal drain does not mean that legal immigrants overall are a net drain -- many legal immigrants are highly skilled.

The vast majority of illegals hold jobs. Thus the fiscal deficit they create for the federal government is not the result of an unwillingness to work.

The results of this study are consistent with a 1997 study by the National Research Council, which also found that immigrants' education level is a key determinant of their fiscal impact.

Moving on...

Far from threatening Ohio's prosperity, immigrants are essential to attracting and retaining residents and businesses, according to George Vredeveld, director of the Economics Center for Education and Research at the University of Cincinnati.

Again, immigrants are vital to our economy. Illegal immigrants are not...

He counts himself among the "vast majority" of economists who have shown time and again that economic growth is directly linked to open immigration policies. He invokes the basic laws of supply and demand: More people want more things. For more things to be available, more people must be employed to make those things.

He fails to mention that this supply of cheap labor stunts innovation and growth, but I'm not an economist and they only care about the bottom line anyway...

The difficult part for many people is thinking beyond the next paycheck and the immediate issues faced by relatives and friends.

This is nothing more than socialist boilerplate. It adds nothing to the discussion... I like to think of it as yet another example of horrible editing...

"Immigration augments your labor supply," Vredeveld says. "In this case, you have to look at the short run and the long run, and you have to talk about 'in general' compared to specific cases. You're always going to find some cases where an American is displaced by an immigrant. You'll be able to find many of them. However, if you look at it just a little more broadly, a larger labor supply spurs economic growth. Economic growth spurs increased demand for labor. In the longer term, it's going to generate jobs, not only for immigrants but for Americans, too."

I think the Center for Immigration Studies handled the "in general" situation quite well, thank you very much, Mr. Economist. Numbers don't lie, even for economists...

The bill virtually ensures that racial discrimination will become part of police and business practice, according to Zayas-Davis.

This is just nonsense. Ms. Zayas-Davis has just insulted the very competent law enforcement community in this state. Ms Zayas-Davis, do you support law and order?

"It's giving a way to legalize racial profiling," she says. "We encourage you to ask about immigration status -- the more often, the better. We want employers to ask. We want law enforcement officials to ask. We want everybody to ask. We can't legislate for everybody to ask, but we'll legislate for those people we can."

Let's talk about profiling and prejudice for a bit. Riddle me this, Batwoman: If these illegals are living in such horrible conditions, why on Earth would you want to perpetuate that cycle of poverty and fear?

Having police check immigration status could create an impediment for people who have been victims of crime, making them afraid to call police.

I haven't checked this particular bill out thoroughly yet, but I have heard of other laws that have exemptions built in for reporting crimes. But this is nonsense anyway. There are enough pay phones around that if an illegal witnessed a crime and wanted to report it, they could do without fear of getting caught themselves.

"Police intervention results in an inquiry of your immigration status," Zayas-Davis says. "If you're a victim, what's the chance that you will report the crime if you don't have immigration status? What's the likelihood prosecutors are going to get the victims of domestic violence to show up in court after the passing of that bill?"

This scenario is a real problem, I grant that. I haven't seen any numbers on how prevalent this scenario is, but I suspect that is cause for real concern. But doesn't that say more about the quality of people who are here illegally?

The legislation would require state employees and contractors to look for undocumented workers -- the most obvious being those with non-white skin or an apparent foreign accent.

Every employee has to fill out paperwork when they are hired. I have been asked if I was a legal US resident for EVERY JOB I EVER HAD... For the record, I'm a single white dude, so stop the BS Ms. Pierce, your lies are absolutely unbelievable.

The bill would require verification of legal status through a U.S. Department of Homeland Security "basic pilot program." As the word "pilot" implies, the system is still in the process of being implemented, and all of the bugs haven't been worked out. The verification system already has proven flaws that will limit its effectiveness.

And isn't that the government's problem? Funny, you never hear arguments like this from liberals when they want to talk about "universal" government run "free" health care...

"Immigration (enforcement) itself makes a mistake where someone is eligible for work authorization, and they don't update the records on a timely basis," Zayas-Davis says. "When I say a timely basis, I'm not talking about they wait a day or two. I've had clients where it's taken a month to remedy this. In the meantime they can't work, even though they're eligible to work, because the computers say they can't work. I've had that happen to people who applied to a company that was part of the pilot program."

We're no longer talking about illegals now are we? This is a separate issue and I agree with Ms. Zayas-Davis: government sucks at this sort of bureaucracy. That's why I'm for smaller, more limited government...

Rep. Combs didn't respond to repeated requests for an interview.

I can't imagine why he would...you drew your conclusions before you even sat down to write the article. People don't like hit jobs, Ms. Pierce...they really don't...