The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK), November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)

November 11, 2005 Friday

SECTION: NEWS


HEADLINE: Oklahoma officials to target employers of illegal immigrants

BYLINE: Janice Francis-Smith

BODY:
To reduce the supply of illegal workers in Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering a proposal to target the source of the demand: employers.
"Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor," professor Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University in New York, told state House and Senate members assigned to a joint committee to consider how illegal workers are impacting Oklahoma's labor market.
State Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, and state Rep. Lance Cargill, R-Harrah - a pair that seldom see eye to eye on legislation - worked together to bring an interim study on illegal immigrant labor before the Legislature. Both legislators said illegal workers threaten access to jobs and health care benefits for Oklahoma citizens.
Illegal aliens in Oklahoma received $7.8 million in Medicaid benefits last year, said Nico Gomez, director of governmental and public affairs for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. The state's share of that total was $2.3 million. Though Gomez did not have data on hand regarding the nature of the procedures the 3,500 illegal residents received, state law requires that Medicaid pay only for treatment of acute conditions, including childbirth.
But as long as employers continue to hire illegal workers - who typically work harder for less pay - the problem will continue, Briggs said. Employers have low labor costs as incentive to skirt the law. And though there are an estimated 12 million illegal residents in the United States, the instances of an employer being brought up on charges for violating federal law in hiring an illegal worker are extremely rare.
"Illegal immigrants will always out-produce American workers," said Briggs. "Because the stakes are too great for them. They know what happens if they have to go back."
If businesses choose to pass on those savings to customers, the consumers benefit, too. The losers are taxpayers, said Briggs. Illegal workers can't support themselves on the low wages they are offered, and so often end up receiving assistance from the state. Local school systems and corrections systems are also impacted by having to accommodate increased population from a group that doesn't pay taxes. Oklahoma citizens with few skills or education also suffer due to the loss of available jobs.
But Briggs said it is impossible to collect reliable data about the extent of the problem, as there are obviously no records made of illegal activity. Still, just looking at the increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants over the last few decades - 1.6 million in the 1960s, compared to 14 million in the 1990s - the problem obviously exists. And Briggs said it will only get worse, considering that 95 percent of the world's population growth is in Third World countries.
"There's nowhere near enough jobs, and no place people can move anymore," he said. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to draw the line."
Even if the country's border patrol were perfect, it would still not eliminate the problem of illegal residents, since roughly 40 percent come into the country through legal means: as students, tourists or on temporary work visas, said Briggs.
Adelson had proposed legislation during the 2005 legislative session that would stiffen penalties for Oklahoma employers who hire illegal workers, and encourage participation in a federal verification system that makes it easier for employers to tell who is and who is not eligible for employment. However, the bill is "languishing in the Senate," said Adelson. During the 2006 session, Adelson said he hopes he and Cargill can work together to move the legislation further along.
Although forming immigration law and policy is the exclusive right the federal government, states have the authority to write laws regarding enforcement, said Michael Hethmon, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigrant Reform. Oklahoma law already allows state and local law enforcement officers to arrest illegal aliens for violating immigration law, but the offender must be detained in a federal facility, he said.