Los Angeles Times (California- Editorial)
January 1, 2015
In
this nation's never-ending debate over immigration, those who demand
strict enforcement of existing laws are armed with a simple rejoinder:
What, they ask, do you not understand about “illegal”?
To them, the solution to illegal immigration is to identify those who
are here illegally and deport them.
------------
FOR THE RECORD:
A
Jan. 2 editorial said that some immigrants’ status is determined by
judges and prosecutors in the Justice Department's Executive Office for
Immigration Review. Prosecutors are now employed
by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
------------
It's a new year, and a new Congress, so who knows, maybe a legislative miracle can happen.
It's
a reasonable point. A law should be enforced. But the argument can't be
isolated from the realities of immigration, which is propelled by
regional economic imbalances, familial connections
and the basic human desire to live a better, safer and richer life.
Those are powerful forces, unlikely to be thwarted by stepped-up
deportation. Instead, under those pressures, our immigration system has
crumbled, and strict enforcement has become impractical,
even impossible. Congress can and should, but probably won't, fix it.
That leaves pragmatism — which President Obama exhibited with his recent
directives offering deportation reprieves for some 5 million immigrants
here illegally.
Modern
immigration policies date to the Reagan-era Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to 2.7 million unauthorized
immigrants who had arrived in the country before
Jan. 1, 1982. The law also introduced some sanctions on employers who
hire undocumented workers, among other reforms. Subsequent revisions
made bureaucratic changes and sought to toughen up enforcement. Despite
that, illegal immigration has more than doubled
since the law was adopted.
Currently,
the immigration system rivals tax codes for complexity. Under the
Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection is
responsible for ensuring that only people with
legal authority enter the country; Citizenship and Immigration Services
processes applications for legal status; and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement tracks down and begins deportation proceedings against those
here illegally. The Department of Health and
Human Services takes responsibility for the welfare of detained
unaccompanied minors until decisions on their status are reached. All
other immigrants caught by enforcement agents are overseen by ICE either
in detention centers or under monitored release until
their status is determined by the Justice Department's Executive Office
for Immigration Review, which includes both the prosecutors and the
judges. Detainees are allowed legal help but must obtain it on their own
(more than half do so, often for free from
nonprofit organizations).
Those
agencies are responsible for a population that is scattered across the
United States, immersed in all aspects of American society. Who are the
undocumented? Since it's difficult to count
people who are trying to hide, the scope of the issue is hard to
quantify. The most reliable, nonpartisan estimates put the number at
more than 11 million people, of whom about 2.5 million live in
California. Just over half the national total are from Mexico,
with an additional 1.7 million from Central America, and together they
account for more than two-thirds of all illegal immigration. An
additional 12% are from Asia, primarily China. Again, accurate data are
hard to come by, but reports suggest that anywhere
from one-quarter to one-third entered the country legally, often on
tourist or student visas, but never left.
No
matter how you parse it, all those people are here in violation of
federal law, and are thus subject to deportation. Yet the size of that
population is precisely what makes deportation
on a grand scale impractical.
Department
of Homeland Security officials have testified before Congress that
their budget is sufficient to deport 400,000 people per year. Some
analysts question that figure and point out
that different types of deportation demand different levels of
resources. For example, an undocumented immigrant turned away at the
border is deported for relative pennies. The pursuit and capture of an
illegal immigrant hiding somewhere in the country's interior
is much more expensive.
The
Congressional Research Service estimated two years ago that ICE's
National Fugitive Operations Program, which tracks down people who don't
leave after being ordered to do so, spent about
$5,820 for each case it handled in 2011. Under ICE's Secure Communities
program, which is being reinvented as part of President Obama's recent
executive actions, the cost was about $2,500 per case. Taking those
per-case averages as (squishy) highs and lows,
the cost of merely identifying those here illegally and removing them
would fall somewhere between $31.4 billion (nearly the total annual
existing budget for the Department of Homeland Security) and $65.2
billion. And that range is probably low, since once
the government started to hunt the undocumented, many would hide even
deeper underground, making it harder and more expensive to find them.
Moreover,
those estimates also don't include new costs for detention (currently
about $1.8 billion a year to house 32,000 people per day) or
adjudication (now a staff of 1,800 people and a
$330-million budget) that would come with trying to deport more than 11
million people. The Center for American Progress advocacy group
estimated in 2010 that removing all the undocumented would exceed $285
billion. Add to that the economic hit of removing
so many workers — an estimated 8.4 million wage-earners, who pay local
taxes and often contribute to Social Security.
The
bottom line: It's easy to say, “deport them all,” but to do so would be
prohibitively expensive, not to mention disruptive for employers and,
of course, wrenchingly hard on those who would
be swept up.
The
solution: a congressional fix to make the system more humane — by
granting relief to many who have lived and worked in the country for
years — and also more tailored to the nation's needs,
including making accommodations for agricultural workers and others
whose labors are desired here. It's a new year, and a new Congress, so
who knows, maybe a legislative miracle can happen. Regardless, the
answer is not “deport them all.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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