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Assembly Republicans Introduce Anti-Immigrant Package of Bills: Isolationist and Out Of Step With California And National Public Opinion

By Gil Cedillo

California State Senator

Four weeks after the deadline to introduce legislation, a group of Republican Assemblymembers have revealed a package of twenty anti-immigrant bills touted as “common sense” despite an obviously biased intent. Many of the proposals are reruns of anti-immigrant legislation that have either been questioned in legal courts or unable to garner majority support, even among other Republican legislators.

The revelation of the anti-immigrant package coincides with the launch of a national clearinghouse for refuting immigration falsehoods entitled “Truth in Immigration.” Sponsored by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the website seeks to “refute legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants and/or Latinos” noting that “hateful dialogue threatens to drown out reasonable and thoughtful perspectives on immigration reform and other key policy issues.”

As Vice Chair of the Latino Caucus I believe this is a blatant discriminatory action that perpetuates the hysteria. We want to put those Draconian days in California behind us. Our focus should not be based on ethnicity but on immigrants’ activity and their conduct which point to home and business ownership, a desire for higher education and safe communities. Poll after poll, including a Fox News poll in September 2007, show national opinion favoring a path to earned citizenship by as much as 70% and yet California Republicans seem immovable on this topic. As with their unyielding opposition to budget compromise, it poisons policy discussions and public opinion and that is the great loss.

The Chair of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, Assemblymember Joe Coto said that at a time when California is facing an economic deficit, we must not lack in working together to come up with real solutions and not scapegoat once again the immigrant undocumented community. The future of our state lies on our student body and workforce we must not be divisive in our common good and giving way to the rhetoric. The Latino Caucus will vigorously reject these misguided proposals in the State Legislature.

The Republican package assumes, without evidence, that immigrants are a burden to the state and cost billions of dollars in prison costs and health care despite recent non-partisan studies demonstrating otherwise. The very premises of these arguments are flawed. The bills purport to deal with several issues -- higher costs associated with healthcare services, incarceration, and taxes -- which have been refuted by research, federal and state government analysis.

In 2007 the Rand Corporation issued a report citing lower usage of healthcare services by undocumented immigrants who tend to be younger and healthier than their citizen counterparts, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) issued a 2007 brief citing lower incarceration and recidivism rates among immigrants than non-immigrant groups, a 2004 Social Security Administration analysis cited a $7 billion surplus in social security contributions as a result of payments from the undocumented, and a study by the Texas state comptroller in December 2006 reported the absence of an estimated 1.4 million undocumented in Texas would result in a loss to gross state product of over $17 billion. No similar analysis has been conducted in California whose undocumented population is similar in size to Texas.

The Republican package also proposes the denial of some social services – such as education and treatment of life-threatening medical conditions – which are protected under the nation’s constitution or fall under federal authority. An effort to repeal in-state tuition ignores the fact that California is facing workforce shortages and needs to focus on training as many qualified employees as possible.

In a recent opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times by USC scholars Dowell Myers and Manuel Pastor the authors noted the need for an informed dialogue on immigration and a greater understanding of the “interwoven destinies” of immigrants and baby boomers as retiring boomers flood Social Security and Medicare in the next decade “generating a need for new workers and taxpayers.” The authors added, “For lack of a dialogue, wrongheaded facts fester in the public imagination, namely that immigration is accelerating, that prosperity is threatened and that assimilation is stalled.”

I believe the reality is that unfortunately the California Assembly Republicans are out of step with their Senate counterparts, the Republican Governor, the Republican President, and the presumptive presidential nominee of their party. I have proposed several pragmatic, integrative bills, including the California Dream Act, the California Real ID Act and the Office of Immigrant Affairs, which garner support among Republican, Democratic, business, agriculture and social advocates.

Senator Gil Cedillo is a California State Senator and has represented the 22nd Senate District since 2002. He is a member of the Senate standing committees on Judiciary, Public Safety, Rules, Transportation and Housing. Senator Cedillo grew up in Boyle Heights, attended local schools, and graduated from UCLA in 1977.

Posted on March 27, 2008

Comments

RE: Assembly Republicans Introduce Anti-Immigrant Package , by Gil Cedillo

Cedillo conflates illegal immigration with legal immigration, disingenuously blurring the distinction between runaway lawlessness and legal behavior.

Furthermore, the costs to California citizens from immigration is significant. The landmark study was undertaken at the behest of a bipartisan commission of Congress in 1999 and conducted by the National Research Council (NRC). They concluded that...

In California the average immigrant-headed household currently use $1,484 more in services provided by state and local government than it pays in taxes. This translates into an added tax burden of $1,178 imposed on each native household in California.

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309063566

Posted by: W.G. Berger at March 27, 2008 09:56 AM

Good Morning,

Many times you have stated that ILLEGAL immigrants are not a burden to California on any agencies. Health, Education Etc.

Then there should be NO COMPLAINING or OPPOSITION to SHUTTING off any of these services. CORRECT!

I'm all for it.

Posted by: Deborah L. at March 27, 2008 10:00 AM

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