The Losses Involved in Immigration Law Enforcements
By: Gerri L. Elder
Americans for Immigration Reform, a new nonprofit group in Oklahoma that supports national immigration reform efforts, has recently announced that the state economy would lose an estimated $1.9 billion per year in consumer spending if all illegal immigrants were forced to leave Oklahoma.
The figure was reached after reviewing a new study by the Perryman Group of Waco, Texas suggested that overall consumer spending in the United States would decline by $1.7 trillion annually if a nationwide enforcement-only immigration policy is enacted on the 8.1 million undocumented immigrant workers who are currently in the country.
Since there is currently a low rate of unemployment in the United States, if 8.1 million workers suddenly were forced out of their jobs and out of the country, there would not be enough workers to fill those jobs. Based on those facts, Perryman predicted $652 billion in lost output and $419 billion in lost income. In Oklahoma alone, a strictly-enforced immigration policy against undocumented workers would result in the loss of 13,371 jobs, $686 million in lost output and $441 million in lost income.
At a public gathering held by Americans for Immigration Reform in Tulsa on June 23, 2008, a Houston interior construction contractor spoke to the crowd about the need for immigrant workers. Most American children are groomed their entire lives to attend college after they graduate from high school. Immigrant workers fill the need for workers in the field of construction and other industries.
Houston-based Americans for Immigration Reform commissioned Perryman to conduct the study as part of its effort to educate Americans about the realities behind the current immigration debate. The group hopes to help form a consensus compromise at a national level. Americans for Immigration Reform decided to hold their first meeting outside of Texas in Tulsa because Oklahoma has already felt the sting of its own immigration reform laws. Following the meeting in Tulsa, the group launched a $20 million fundraising campaign in Oklahoma City to help continue its educational efforts across the country, according to a report by the Journal Record.
Oklahoma's House Bill 1804 took effect on November 1 and is one of the toughest and most controversial immigration laws in the country. Since that time, there have reportedly been a large number of Hispanic people leaving the state. This has caused operational problems in many service and labor-intensive industries in Oklahoma. The estimates of the number of Hispanic people who have left the state vary with some reports indicating 25,000 Hispanics have left the state, while others report that more than 30,000 Hispanic people have left just from the Tulsa area.
Some parts of Oklahoma's immigration law are on hold, pending litigation and appeals through the court system or an overriding federal action. Even so, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security already targets businesses that may employ undocumented immigrant workers with workplace immigration raids and surprise inspections to check worker identification forms. Some businesses say they know that they are one visit or immigration raid away from being shut down and put out of business.