Wall Street Journal
By Gerald Seib
April 4, 2013
Critics of America’s immigration system point to many flaws and shortcomings within it, but here’s one critique that has gotten relatively little attention: It’s an expensive and burdensome regulatory labyrinth.
Now a new light is about to shine on that argument for reform. The American Action Forum, an economic think tank founded by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and onetime economic adviser to Sen. John McCain‘s presidential campaign, has prepared an analysis of more than 150 immigration-related regulations.
Its conclusion: Individuals and businesses devote 98.8 million hours to immigration-related paperwork annually, at a cost of approximately $30 billion.
The assertion that dealing with immigration matters involves filling out lots of forms and devoting many hours to the task probably won’t come as a shock to any individual or any business with direct experience in the area–and those who want to slow down immigration actually may like things that way. Still, the AAF study may be the first comprehensive effort to quantify the burden, and its cost to the economy.
The study finds, for example, that there are 234 government forms related to immigration, emanating from seven different agencies, including 116 forms produced by the Department of Homeland Security alone.
Acquiring an H-1B visas—those prized visas sought by companies needing workers with specific skills and education—means encountering “at least 16 forms, roughly 18 hours of paperwork, and approximately $2,500 in direct costs,” the study says.
But the most common form, and the one that soaks up the most man-hours, is the I-9 form, the study says. The I-9 is the form used to verify the identify and legal status of virtually all workers in this country. U.S. residents and their employers spend 40.6 million hours annually tackling the I-9 process, the study says.
The question of regulatory demands is particularly relevant now because the immigration overhaul plans taking shape in Congress actually could increase the scope of regulations that need to be met. The plans generally envision finding a way to bring 11 million currently undocumented workers into the legal system and providing them a path to citizenship, as well as new ways for employers to establish that those they hire have legal status. Such changes seem likely to add to regulatory challenges.
“Few doubt that our current immigration system is in need of reform,” the study concludes. “Thankfully, many agree that our regulatory state needs an overhaul as well.”
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