Neighboring states are all over the map

Neighboring states are all over the map
on immigration
By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Our Red River neighbors, Arkansas and Oklahoma, are just about polar opposites on immigration.
Arkansas leaders point to a new study showing that their state rakes in $3 billion a year from the spending and
jobs generated by illegal immigrants -- about 40 percent of the state's total revenue from all tourists and visitors.
In almost the same week, Oklahoma began enforcing new state laws and telling illegal immigrants to go visit
someplace else.
The news lately has been all about immigration:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is under fire for supporting New York's decision to issue special
driver's permits to illegal immigrants so they can buy insurance as long as they're here.
(Historical note: The same idea passed the conservative Texas Legislature in 2001 but was vetoed by Gov. Rick
"Border Guard" Perry.)
Burleson Republican Rob Orr became the first Fort Worth-area lawmaker in the Texas House to sign on with an
Irving lawmaker to call for police to fully enforce federal immigration laws -- yes, even though those codes are
civil regulations that only the feds can legally enforce.
A Zogby International study for Hazleton, Pa., which along with Farmers Branch was one of the first cities to
enact local immigration laws, said that racial divisions have hurt the city's economy. The study recommended
repealing the laws to reverse the city's population loss and economic decline.
Oklahoma started enforcing laws meant to prevent illegal immigrants from working in the state or attending public
colleges with discounted tuition.
The law also requires state and local law officers to check the immigration status of anyone arrested in
connection with a felony or a drunken-driving charge. Some sheriffs and police chiefs are already calling that an
unfunded state mandate that drains county and city resources.
The bad news for Texans is that the discord will only get worse as the election year goes on. The good news is
that bashing illegal immigrants as criminals, or diseased, or disloyal has never won a Texas election.
Tamar Jacoby of the New York-based Manhattan Institute has advised an Austin-based business group, Texas
Employers for Immigration Reform, that lobbied Congress this year for tougher borders and a temporary
guest-worker plan. The bill failed.
(Call it even. Last year, Congress defeated a bill to make illegal immigration a crime.)
Congress' failure "has shifted the battleground," Jacoby said by phone. "In the states, it's becoming much more
polarized. Without a bill in Congress and the give-and-take of negotiations, there's no center of gravity to pull
people toward the center. There are only the various sides pulling people apart."

State and local officials feel obliged to "do something and appear to be in control," she said. Meanwhile, "you
see people gloating over deportations, and immigrants getting angrier."
The Oklahoma law is "like cutting off your nose to spite your face," she said.
"Choking the economy and driving workers out -- I don't think that's a very effective way to improve your state.
Calling your opponents 'racist' doesn't achieve a solution, either."
In Arkansas, businesses have announced a new Arkansas Friendship Coalition to promote "dignity" for all
humankind, call for congressional action and defend illegal immigrants' $3 billion role in the state's economy, as
detailed in a report by the Washington-based Urban Institute.
"We don't want to lose the economic benefits or cultural benefits these people bring to Arkansas," said the Rev.
Steve Copley, a Methodist minister from North Little Rock.
"If we lose them, then Arkansas loses money. If you use state and local police time and jail time, that's even
more money lost. We need Congress to reform the system. We don't need a patchwork of local laws."
Everybody wants a tighter border. But the last time Texas' comptroller figured up the balance sheet on spending
and tax revenues from illegal immigration, our state came out ahead by $17.7 billion.
If only we could stop divisive politics at the Red River.