January 21, 2008
California Official Reignites Mexican Immigrant Polemic
Frontera NorteSur
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich reignited debate this month about the costs and contributions of
illegal immigration to the United States. The California politician recently contended that undocumented immigrants cost Los
Angeles County tax-payers about one billion dollars every year, not including expenses for education. "This new information
shows an alarming increase in the devastating impact that illegal immigration continues having on the taxpayers of Los Angeles
County," Antonovich said.
According to Antonovich, Los Angeles County annually spends US$220 million on undocumented
immigrants for law enforcement, US$400 million for healthcare, and US$444 million for public assistance. Government spending
on undocumented immigrants should be a major issue among the US presidential candidates, Antonovich added.
Immigrant
rights activists challenged Antonovich's numbers. "His statistics are bad. Undocumented immigrants don't even have access
to many services and every year California receives four billion dollars from immigrants, whether they are documented or not,"
said Angelica Salas, director of the Los Angeles Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights. "(Antonovich) forgets the big detail
that millions of undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes and in this way they contribute to the economy."
A 2006 study
by the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative reported that immigrants pay US$4.5 billion in state taxes each year. A
separate, recent report from the Immigration Policy Center asserted that 50-75 percent of undocumented immigrants pay federal,
state, social security and healthcare taxes; the US Internal Revenue Service has reported the existence of a US$7 billion
fund traced to invalid or questionable social security numbers. Contributions from undocumented workers are suspected to be
the origin of a lot of the mysterious money.
In another study, the Mexican Consulate in Arizona calculated that while an estimated 500,000 Mexican migrants
in the state earn only 8 percent of the state's payroll, they account for 13.4 percent of local purchasing power, or US$27.6
billion.
Los Angeles' Mexican Consulate quickly joined the verbal fray over Antonovich's numbers. In a statement, the
Consulate's press office questioned the Los Angeles official's statistics. "No fair and objective evaluation exists in the
United States about the contribution Mexican immigrants make to the economy by means of consumption, tax payments and contributions
to social security," the Consulate said. "If it is estimated that 10 percent of the monthly salary is destined to remittances,
then nine times this quantity stays here to pay for services and the consumption of goods."
The Consulate's involvement
in the Antonovich controversy is one notable example of how Mexico's diplomatic corps is becoming more vocal about issues
that involve Mexican migrants. Last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderon instructed Mexican consulates and embassies in
the United States and Canada to speak out about the migrant issue.
Another flashpoint in the growing international
war of words is in Arizona, where a new state law, the Fair and Legal Employment Act, contains tough penalties for businesses
employing undocumented workers. The Mexican government is increasingly concerned about the possible social and economic impacts
of more than 200,000 jobless Mexicans who might be forced to suddenly return home from Arizona.
In a recent Mexico
City meeting, officials from Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry and representatives of the country's three largest political
parties agreed to coordinate efforts on behalf of their country's migrants. According to Senator Silvano Aureoles Conejo,
Mexican senators agreed to send a letter to Arizona state legislators that expresses concern over "xenophobic attitudes" against
Mexican migrants in the southwestern state.
Another senator who attended the Mexico City meeting, Ricardo Garcia Cervantes,
chairman of the North American Foreign Affairs Committee, vowed that officials will take a more active role in the defense
of migrants. "We are going to begin working on new ways of promoting consular action, documenting violations and informing
and assisting Mexicans that live in the United States," he said. "This is a priority function and we all assume it."
——————————
Sources:
El Diario de Juarez/Notimex, January 15, 2008. La Jornada, January 10, 2008. Article by Elizabeth Velasco C. and news
agencies. Univision, January 8, 2008. El Universal, December 19, 2007. Article by Gabriela Gutierrez M.
——————————
Frontera
NorteSur (FNS)
Center
for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
——————————
(Reprinted with authorization from Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS
can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/)
Translation FNS
