Bring ’em on (or in)

Another argument flames out

YOU KNOW the sputtering types who go a little crazy on the subject of illegal immigration in this country? The kind who don’t like all that Espanol being hablaed everywhere they go? Well, they’ve just had yet another of their arguments exposed as baseless.

Remember hearing the complaints about all the jobs those illegal immigrants were taking from red-blooded American workers? As if today’s still red-blooded (but now a little spoiled) Americans would do much of that kind of back-breaking labor. The kind our forefathers did—or just fathers did if you’re the first generation of an immigrant family.

If seems that, after lawmakers in Georgia and Alabama pushed through tough new immigration codes in early 2011, farmers in those states watched as their crops rotted in the field or on the vine that fall. There weren’t enough workers to harvest the tomatoes and onions, and farmers were hit hard.

Dispatches from those states say the laborers there, the ones whose papers weren’t in order, just moved to Florida and other nearby locales. Labor flows toward jobs like water down a hill. And if a legislature builds a dam . . . good luck, farmers.

Businessweek reported in 2012 that Alabama’s restrictive immigration laws were causing immigrants to flee. (Cops there could stop anybody they suspected of being in this country illegally and demand his papers.) Businesses found themselves with a severe labor shortage. So who stepped up to take the jobs? No, not Americans. Refugees from Haiti, Puerto Rico and Africa.

THEN there are those who argue that illegal immigration is just a way to import poverty into the country. That’s always been hogwash, even when it was said by the KnowNothings of the 19th Century. The lazy and fearful have always stayed where they were. Only the enterprising—or just desperate—will move to another country to tackle a difficult new language and a daunting new culture.

The huddled masses are still yearning to breathe free—as long as Liberty still lifts her lamp beside the golden door. (Lazarus, Emma.) And their offspring may prove as industrious, enterprising and successful as earlier firstgeneration Americans. (Ever hear of Marco Rubio out of Florida or the Cuomos in New York?)

Then there are those who still argue that it just costs too darned much to pay for all these illegal immigrants on the American taxpayer’s dime. Why should the rest of us pay to educate their kids, mend their broken bones, teach them English or, given enough time, microbiology or electrical engineering?

That argument isn’t much of one, either. Never has been. This latest generation of know-nothings is going to have to come up with something that’ll stand up one day to the slightest inspection and/or historical perspective. Or they’ll have to stand down.

RESEARCHERS with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the outfit that commissioned a three-volume study of immigration’s effects on American society, found that Arkansas’ state and local governments spent about $555 million on immigrants in 2010.

That’s for all immigrants—naturalized citizens, legal or illegal aliens, political refugees, the whole bunch. Those immigrants, all in all, pay more than $524 million a year in taxes. (Everybody pays taxes, even to buy a gallon of milk.)

So . . . We spent $555 million and they paid $524 million! Ah hah! They’re sucking the very lifeblood out of us all! Not according to this study. The total economic benefit that immigrants provide is about $4 billion, with a B. The estimated 150,000 or so immigrants here in Arkansas buy food. And cars. And clothes. And shoes and computers and school yearbooks and Razorback jerseys and unleaded gasoline and tickets to the movies and phone cards to call home. Not to mention natural gas, electricity, and tap water. And they pay for housing, too. And taxes on all of it.

All that economic activity keeps other people employed. And those other Americans—like you and us, brother— pay their own taxes and buy their own shoes and their own Razorback jerseys. It’s called an economic cycle for a reason.

These researchers found that having immigrants in this state probably helped Arkansas weather the Great Recession better than we might have done otherwise. Have you noticed? Immigrants don’t go to places where economic activity is stagnant. They’re looking for work. Which means more work—and income—for the rest of us.

The story in Arkansas’ newspaper about the Rockefeller Foundation’s report quoted the Secure Arkansas types, too. Of course. Reporters try to get both sides of the story. And there’s more than one side when it comes to illegal immigration. There may be millions of sides. As many as there are immigrants.

Unfortunately, the Secure Arkansas spokeswoman in our news story didn’t offer much besides accusations: The Rockefeller Foundation is slanted! Those business types are just pushing for cheap labor!

Our modern-day know-nothings sound a lot like their historical forerunners. And they’re just as likely to be proved wrong.