Sunlight on Illegal Immigration Impact?
Jun 29th, 2010 by Timothy Pancoast
Finally, one of the keys to having an honest and rational debate about illegal immigration has been introduced in the Delaware General Assembly, though perhaps too late for this year. I do not believe we can have an honest debate about illegal immigration as long as we do not have reliable data and statistics about its impact. Yet, all too often such data is actively avoided rather than pursued. That may be changing. Here is the good news.
Rep. Hudson (along with Reps. D. Short, Briggs King, Hocker, Kovach, Carson, and Mitchell) has introduced House Resolution 48 which reads as follows:
“WHEREAS, undocumented immigration is a source of much debate in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the federal government is currently dealing with this relevant issue; and
WHEREAS, the cost and impacts on the State of Delaware as a result of undocumented immigration is unknown; and
WHEREAS, these unknown costs to the State of Delaware could be in the form of public health and hospitalization, criminal justice and court services, education, taxes, social services and insurance costs, and in other forms;
NOW, THEREFORE:
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the 145th General Assembly of the State of Delaware that , that the Delaware Economic Development Office is directed to study the costs and impact of undocumented immigration on the State of Delaware and to submit a comprehensive report on the study to the House of Representatives by January 11, 2011.
SYNOPSIS
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This resolution directs the Delaware Economic Development Office to study the costs and impact of undocumented immigration on the State of Delaware and to submit a comprehensive report on the study to the House by January 11, 2011. |
Edit: The only other action that will even come close to seeing floor time this year is Sen. Booth’s SB 230. This is an E-Verify Law. That would have impact on government employees and the employees of companies working on government contractors. It would also have impact on illegal immigrants seeking certain non-emergency entitlement program bennefits.
The 9-12 Delaware Patriots did work with one Senator to craft a draft bill that mirrors the Oklahoma law. It was fully drafted and went back and forth between immigration attorneys, and Delaware attorneys to ensure that it followed national immigration laws which had been upheld in court as well as the Delaware code. It was never granted a bill number, and never picked up a sponsor. The powers that be decided that there was not enough time in this session to give the bill a credible chance. While we are glad that there is at least some action on the issue we are not letting go and will continue to pursue that legislation in future sessions.
There has also been plenty of work on the opposing side. The Governor has an immigration task force of sorts and resolutions to encorage immigration reform that would include a pathway to citizenship, and I hope, securing the borders have been pursued by legislators in both parties.
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Whereas and whatfors aside, Timothy, I understand the need to know the specific impact, but really this is another cost and study that will get us no where on immigration. We know the impact, on our schools,on our justice and health care systems. We all know it and our political leaders know it.
This may be a little cynical, but this resolution seems to be little more than an election year sop to those citizens concerned with illegal immigration. Instead of trying to pass legislation like Arizona and Oklahoma, we get a study that will actually cost the state more money(that in itself is an economic impact of immigration). Also why so late in the legislative session?This will never get more than a little press coverage, which may be all that is hoped for.
These representatives should have put forth a bill to pass real reform like Arizona, and then let the people know who would vote against it. They should have done it sooner so that it could have been debated and covered by the press and allowed the people to go into the voting booths in November knowing who was on their side on this issue.
But of course here in little old Delaware our legislators would never embarrass each other in that way.
I attended a forum last night on manufacturing in America and the Secretary of Labor was asked about illegal immigration. He clearly responded the chicken places were abiding by the law and seemed uninterested in any other actions.
Mike Protack
We only care about illegal actions if there is a cost associated with those actions? It appears to me to be the work product of some gutless legislators playing to both sides of the issue. They can tell the law and order crowd that they tried. They can tell those that support breaking our laws that they were not personally responsible, but that the facts forced their hands. Of course, what is the chance of passage or valid data from DEDO? Thank God that all of the Dover royalty will be at their beach houses tomorrow and will not be back to prey on the taxpayers until next January. Unfortunately, the taxpayers are going to be at great risk until legislators actually vacate our Dover version of Camelot some time tomorrow morning.
Frank, trust me, I feel the full force of frustration in trying to get anything done with our legislature where illegal immigration is concerned. The majority, including many Republicans favor some variation of a pathway to citizenship. Between the House and the Senate there’s less than half a dozen legislators that care enough about illegal immigration to even make a peep, let alone pursue serious action concerning the matter. Then our state’s Executive Branch is even worse, being little more than an extention of the White House. Gov. Markell, will do nothing on enforcement and is actively seeking “earned citizenship” for illegals. I have yet to find a “pathway to citizenship” that I see as being fair to US citizens and legal immigrants. In some respects they aren’t even fair to the illegal immigrants.
Anbupro, I don’t need to see the economic impact studies to be concerned about illegal activity, but our legislature seems to. Any action that would provide us with solid data to point to is a step in the right direction in my book.
Trust me I can’t wait for this legislative session to end. I plan to be there today through to the end, and I will watch them leave at zero dark thirty tomorrow morning.
Hey Mike Protack: You still think undocumented immigrants should be permitted to attend state colleges?
http://colossus.mu.nu/archives/269760.php
Nice one Hube. I forgot about that one.
Those rotten kids who didn’t runaway from their parents and go back to a country they can’t even remember. They studied hard, added to our community and kept the rules so they should be treated worse than the hundreds of thousands of students who come in just for schooling. We are so much better off with them being less educated.
We should definately put barriers up for them because we hate what that their parents got tired of a bloated, regulatory bureaucracy that said they needed to wait up to 30 years to better their lives and that of their families.
I agree get hard on those kids and teach them what America is really about.
Moderator,
Please move post #8 to http://www.delawareliberal.net/, it was posted to the wrong site. That is the pick and choose what laws you like site.
David, would you like to clarify the meaning and intent of your comment #8?
I don’t think that was David. More like Trust Fund playing his usual games.
If it was David, then tell it to my ex-wife, who actually played by the rules (and it wasn’t 30 freakin’ years) to reap the benefits of living here.
Crickets from Anderson and Protack. The latter isn’t surprising; from David, it is.
Just an update, not really suprizing but there will be no sunlight this year, maybe next year. We might also try some other options to shed a little sunlight on the situation in the meantime, but until the state generates some of its own data it will likely be ignored.